


Chakram Reborn (The Pilot- Final Edition)

by MinderellatheBard1973 (GabrielletheBard1973)



Category: Gabrielle - Fandom, Gabrielle/Xena - Fandom, Xena - Fandom
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:47:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 44,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22505803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GabrielletheBard1973/pseuds/MinderellatheBard1973
Summary: Hi everyone! This is the final edit of Chakram Reborn. It is rewritten in my new writing style. It’s more structured and falls in line to how a novel is suppose to be written. There is little tweaks and changes from the original and second rough draft. Hope you enjoy it!!———Storyline basis: The story revolves around “The Xena Scrolls” and the decendants the Pappas and Covington’s. I did a lot of research for this story using snippets of the show and an old novel that I wrote 20+ years blending both stories in to make it fit! You will figure out who’s who and I threw some surprises in there! So, with that, I would be honored if you would join me in this labor of love that I call Chakram Reborn!‘
Relationships: Family - Relationship, Friends - Relationship, enimies, lovers - Relationship
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	1. Nightmares Of The Past

The Yin/Yang Chakram, a weapon only a select few could handle. It is said that when Gabrielle died, Xena and Gabrielle’s spirits were intertwined within the Chakram, waiting to be released again. Throughout time, trusted Gods and humans alike, hid this Chakram, waiting for the time for Xena and Gabrielle to be reborn again. For when the time comes, a descendant of Xena’s will hold the Chakram, and Xena and Gabrielle will be reborn again. Both Xena and Gabrielle will be reincarnated as their descendants and will be reunited. And once finding the Chakram, they shall emerge as their true selves again to fight for good in a new world.

Chapter 1: Nightmares of the Past 

Opening Scene

Lying in her bed, 21 year old Jessie Pappas-Decker head moves side to side as she tries not to dream. The raven haired beauty whimpers as her mind cast a scene of a past that she is haunted by. In the downstairs family room of the spacious Decker home, a young Jessie, 5, and her two older sisters Sydney, 7 and Beth , 9 are hiding in the walk-in closet peeking out of a cracked open door at the fearful sight.

Their mother Zara Pappas-Decker, is being held at gunpoint by a dark figure. "Where is it!" the female voice say angrily. 

"Listen, I have no clue what you're talking about, but if you want money, I can give it to you!" Zara says nervously. "Just please don't shoot, I hate guns!" 

The dark figure walks around her and says, "I know you have it! Its been in your family for generations!" 

"I told you, I have no clue what you're talking about!" Says the raven haired Zara.

The shadowy female figure cocks the gun, points it to Zara's head and says "Either you give it to me or your girls will be without a mother!" 

A scared look comes across Zara's face. "Leave my girls alone! They are innocent!" Zara says frightened.

The shadowy figure laughs methodically into Zara's ear and says in an evil voice, "Maybe if I kill one of your daughters, then you'll give it to me!"

Sydney tries to open the door, but Beth pulls her back, forcing Sydney's curly, light brown bangs to fall in her face. "Stay here!" Beth whispers as a strand of brown hair falls in front of her.

An angry look comes across Zara's face and she elbows the intruder in the stomach and back kicks the gun out of her hand. The three young girls watch in horror as a fight starts between the two female adults!! Little Jessie hugs Beth as the two women fight. Beth and Sydney go to the corner of the closet while Jessie looks through the crack of the door. Suddenly the dark figure pulls out a knife and when Zara wasn't looking, the woman stabs Zara in the stomach. A look of pain and fear comes across Zara's face as she kneels to the ground. She looks at the knife in her stomach, blood oozing out of her stomach, then back up at the shadowy figure. And as she falls to the ground Jessie awakes from her nightmare!!

"NO!!" Jessie yells in horror and anger. She looks around her room gasping for air, wiping the sweat from her for head. She runs into the bathroom, turns on the faucet and splashes cold water on her face. As she grabbed a towel and dries her face, she looks into the mirror with horror and anger. 

Her long raven hair falls past her shoulder and her deep blue eyes stares helplessly at herself!! "Why am I having this dream again!!" she says angrily. "Why!" She clenches her fists wanting to smash the mirror, but she makes her fist stop before smashing it. She takes a deep breath and walks back into her room, sits on her bed and glances at her phone sitting on her night stand and sees that it's 6am. " I have to go workout. I need to calm down." She takes a deep breath and goes into her bathroom.

....….............................

About 30 minutes later Jessie is in the workout room of the sprawling Decker home. She is wearing a sports bra, black yoga pants and sneakers. Her hair is in a ponytail and she is wearing boxing gloves. With determination in her face, she easily hits the large bag, sending it flying midway up. Her toned abs and arms flex with each punch as she concentrates on her workout. Her older sisters, Sydney and Beth Pappas-Decker walk in and stair at Jessie with worried looks on their faces. Sydney, now 23, still has the curly, light brown hair, but the curls are more looser. Beth, now 25, sports brown/blonde highlights. Both are dressed in sweats and sneakers.

"She had the nightmare again." Sydney whispers to Beth with a concerned look on her face. 

Beth sighed and looked at Jessie as she's concentrating on punching the bag. "She needs help." Beth says to Sydney, “She can't keep living with this nightmare." 

Sydney's one eyebrow raises as she gives Beth a serious look. "She isn't going to do counseling." Sydney says. "She won’t even talk to us! Besides, she hates Dr. Smith.”

"That's because he's Andrea's buddy from college or whatever." Beth says sarcastically.

Sydney looks over at Jessie with concern. "There is another option." Sydney says as they walk up to Jessie. "Hey sis! Having a good workout!"

"Yep." Jessie says as her punches become more fierce. "Doesn't your hands hurt? " Beth says as Jessie stops and turns around, taking off her gloves. 

"One of you, block me!" Jessie says in a zone. Sydney and Beth look at each other and Sydney takes position in front of Jessie.

Sydney blocks Jessie's fists as she reverts to a kickboxing/hand to hand style of workout. Jessie swings her hips as Sydney blocks her punches and kicks. Jessie and Sydney start to move around the room. For every punch and kick that Jessie throws, Sydney flawlessly blocks. Jessie jumps on a workout bench, does a backflip and performs a swing kick move, but making sure she never hurts her older sister, who is amazed by the actions her younger sister is performing. Beth, looks on in awe as Jessie runs onto another bench and does a backflip, forcing Sydney to quickly turn and block a high kick. Jessie takes a fist and aims it towards Sydney.

"Ok, Jess, you're done!" Beth says seriously as she blocks Jessie fist from almost coming to Sydney's face. "We need to talk! Now!" 

Jessie snaps out of the zone she was in and grabs a towel wiping sweat from her face. "You know I'd never hit you Sydney!." Jessie says. "What's up!" 

Sydney grabs a towel and wipes her face. "We're worried about you Jess." she says concerned. "You've been off for a while, distant. Jessie, what’s wrong?"

Jessie walks over to a cooler and grabs a bottled water, taking a big gulp, she looks over at her older sisters. "I'm fine." Jessie says seriously. "Everything's ok. " 

Beth walks over to Jessie and puts her hand on her younger sisters shoulder, "Jessie, have you been having those nightmares again about what happened to mom, haven’t you?" Beth says concerned. 

Jessie gets a serious look on her face. "I'm fine." Jessie says calmly as she looks looks seriously into Beths eyes. "I'm good."

Sydney sits on a workout bench and looks at Jessie. "Jess, we are worried about you." She says seriously. "I know you don't want to hear this, but maybe you should talk with Dr. Smith, maybe he can... " 

Jessie starts pacing in front of them. "Hell No!" Jessie yells! "I'm not talking to that quack job! There's something about him that freaks me out!!"

"Jess, I know you haven't been to counseling in a while, but he can help." Sydney says in a worried voice. She gets up and gently puts her hand under Jessie's chin as a tear runs down her face. "Jess, I would move heaven and Earth if I could bring mom back and make your pain go away, but you've been holding this anger up for way to long now. You've become so distant, like a different person." 

Beth walks to Jessie and touches her shoulder, "Listen, I know you don't like Andrea." Beth says seriously. "We don't like her either, but for some weird reason she makes dad happy. Just please, talk to Dr. Smith, maybe he can help." 

Suddenly Jessie gets this angry look on her face and puts her fist through a board that was holding more boxing gloves. Jessie's action causes Sydney and Beth to look on in fear. Jessie snaps out of her mood and turns to them, with a tear in her eye,"I, I'm sorry." Jessie says with regret, "I didn't mean to scare you two. I would never harm you." Beth and Sydney gives Jessie a hug. 

"It's ok Jess." Beth says reassuring her. "We know." Beth looks at Sydney seriously then they look at Jessie.

"Hey sis, can we throw another idea at you." Sydney says. Jessie looks at them and shakes her head yes. "We've been in contact with Aunt Kira." Sydney says. "And since you're done with your classes this semester, she would like to see you!" A huge smile comes across Jessie's face. 

"Wow!" Beth says happily, "I haven't seen you smile like that in years!" Jessie sits on a bench and looks at her sisters.

"It's been at least 7 years since I saw her!" Jessie says grinning from ear to ear, she looks down at the floor, then back at her sisters. "She really wants to see me!" Jessie says with excitement in her voice.

"Yeah sis! She does!" Sydney happily says. 

Jessie gets up and walks around, "But what about you two?" I know she'd love to see the both of you too." Jessie says. 

“Well, we are booked with classes and other stuff." Beth says, " Besides, you are her favorite!" Jessie smiles again then gets a serious look on her face. 

"Does dad and Andrea know about this?" Jessie says worried, "Dad would be cool with the idea, but Andrea will protest it!"

"She doesn't have any say so in our lives Jessie!" Sydney says seriously, "We are grown adults now. And if anyone needs this getaway, it's you." Sydney hugs Jessie, "Think about it sis." 

Just then a female voice comes over the intercom in the gym. "Ladies, breakfast." the voice says, "Your dad is home from his business trip and wants to see you ." All three girls look at the intercom with disgust. 

"I don't want to deal with her." Jessie says in disgust as she puts a zipped hoodie on. Sydney grabs her arm. 

"Come on Jess, if we have to, so do you." All three sisters leave the gym.

\------–---------

The scene is now the elegant Decker dining room where a spread of breakfast foods are laid across the huge dining room table. Sitting on the right side of the table is Andrea Decker, age 54. With her long brownish hair, brown eyes, high cheekbones and 6 foot frame, she has a look that is captivating, but demands respect. The three sisters walk in the dining room and sit across from her looking civil to say the least. 

"Good Morning girls, did you have a good workout this morning.” Andrea says politely. 

"Yes, yes we did Andrea." Beth says.

Walking into the dinning room is 56 year old James Decker. His brown yet salt and pepper hair and goatee gives him a sexy, rugged look as his biceps flex through his business suit.

"Ok, let me get back to you." James says on his cell phone, "Having breakfast with my daughters." He shuts off his cell phone and looks at his daughters with a smile on his face. "Hi ladies!" he says, "Hows my girls!" 

All three sisters get up and hug their dad. You can tell Beth and Sydney resemble their father with their hair color, hazel eyes and smile. Jessie hugs James and he looks at her tenderly knowing she's the splitting image of his beloved late wife. "Come on girls, lets eat, talk!"

A few minutes later, the family is eating breakfast. Jessie eats a high protein breakfast with minimal carbs while everyone else eats regular breakfast. 

"I'm sorry I've been away on business gals." James says, "These deals that are coming up could land the company with huge assets this month." 

"That's good dad." Sydney says as she looks at Jessie with a coaxing signal.

"So Beth, how's graduate school going?" Andrea asks. 

"Uh, good. I start labs next semester for my Pathology classes.” Beth says

James gets a huge smile on his face. "That's awesome Beth!" James say proudly. 

Andrea looks at her confused, "But I thought you were going for history?" Andrea says. 

"That would be me." Sydney says annoyed. "Beth has always been into science and medicine." Suddenly there is an awkward moment of silence in the room. Sydney looks at James and says, "I'm studying Ancient history right now. We are exploring the Amazon tribes of Ancient Greek and Roman times! These Amazon women were very intriguing!”

“Wow! You girls are really coming into your own." James says as Andrea still looks confused. He looks at Jessie, "How about you Jess? What have you been up to in school?"

Jessie looks at her sisters and then at her dad. "I finished all my classes early this semester." Jessie say. "That's great!" James says. 

"Have you picked out a major yet." Andrea says staring seriously at her, "Your father and I are paying for all three of your girls schooling, we at least want to know what your career goals are." 

Jessie looks at Andrea seriously. "Number one, our father is paying for our schooling, not you," Jessie say annoyed, ”Second, I will decide when the time is ready, what to do with my life!"

"Jess, what's wrong honey?” James asks worried, "You can tell me." 

Jessie looks at her dad seriously. "I want to take some time off from school." Jessie says. "I want to take a gap semester. I've been stuck in either boarding school and now collage. I need a break." 

" What do you want to do Jess?" James asks.

"Out of the question!" Andrea says interrupting them, "You need to keep up with your credits, you want to graduate on time!" 

Jessie angrily whips her head at Andrea and stairs her down "It's my life!" Jessie yells "You have no say so in it!"

"Jessie keep your voice down!" Andrea says seriously "You're embarrassing yourself in front of your whole family!" 

"Screw you!" Jessie yells angrily at Andrea. 

"Jessie! Calm down!" James says worried, "What's wrong, I've never seen you like this! Are you ok? Something going on on campus? You can tell me?" 

Jessie looks at her dad seriously and says, "I want to go see Aunt Kira out in Arizona! I miss her! And she wants me to come down there." 

"Maybe you should talk with Dr. Smith, he can help you out with your anger issues." Andrea says.

"I am not talking to that quack job!" Jessie says angrily. 

Andrea suddenly gets up from the table and both her and Jessie come face to face with each other. "I won't allow you to belittle a friend who has helped this family!" Andrea says as she stares angrily at Jessie, who is equally staring her down. 

"Help this family!" Jessie screams "He's nothing but a so called therapist out to make a quick buck off our family!" 

"I won't allow you to talk like this to me!" Andrea yells. 

"Fuck off! You're not our mother!" Jessie screams as a fist starts to curl up. Beth, Sydney and James suddenly fly out of their chairs and Beth and Sydney pull Jessie back while James pulls Andrea back. 

"Jess, Jess, calm down. Take a deep breath." Beth says in a reassuring voice, "It's ok. Just breath."

Jessie takes a huge breath and looks at her very confused dad, "I'm sorry dad." Jessie says "I'm just stressed out right now." 

James looks at her worried and says, "Jess, honey, I don't know what's troubling you, but, if you want to take some time away and go visit your aunt, I'll support your decision. Just promise me that you'll keep in contact with your sisters and I"

"Of course dad." Jessie says more calmly, “You know I will.”

James walks over to Jessie hugs her and says. "All I want is for you to be happy Jess." He smiles at her then says, "Come on, give me that beautiful smile that lights up my world." 

Jessie gives her dad a smirk and says, "Don't worry dad, I'll be ok." 

They look at each other with smiles on their faces, "You are your mother's daughter." James says. He then looks at everyone, grabs a muffin and says, "I have to go to a meeting. Is everything ok now?" Everyone nods their head yes in agreement. "Book the flight and let me know when you leave Jess." James says. Jessie nods yes as James leaves the room.

Andrea then looks at Jessie with disgust in her eyes and screams, “Why you little bitch!” Andrea goes to slap Jessie but, she quickly blocks her hand, twisting her arm to her back and throwing her against the wall. 

"What the hell!" Jessie says confused "Don't you ever, ever try to lay a hand on me! You got it!" 

Andrea gets a shocked look on her face as Sydney says seriously. "Jessie let her go! You're going to break her arm." 

"Let her go now Jess!" Beth says. 

Jessie released her hold on Andrea, giving her a glaring look and walks out of the dining room in a hurry.

"Your sister is nuts!" Andrea says stretching her arm, "I'm glad she's getting away from us!" 

Sydney looks at Andrea with a serious look on her face, "No, more like you!" she says annoyed, "Every since you married our dad, all you've tried to do is control us." 

"That's not true!" Andrea says, "I've always wanted what was best for all three of you girls." 

"Yeah right!" Beth says annoyed, "All you've done is dictate our lives!" Beth says as she leaves. 

"Oh, and just so you know, your buddy the therapist, his therapy, never helped!" Sydney says as she also leaves. Andrea's facial expression then becomes cold as she walks out of the room.

\-------------

Jessie is fast asleep in her bed, suddenly her dream takes her to a place during the time of ancient Rome. There is a battle going on against a group of raiders is a very tall, athletic woman. Having the same raven hair as Jessie only a tad darker, her deep blue eyes are focused in battle. She swings her sword blocking and killing every raider that comes her way. She makes a war cry as she back flips and stabs another raider, killing him. She suddenly grabs an object from her belt. It is blurred from Jessie's view, but this woman warrior takes it, throws it and watches it as it reflects off of two raiders, bouncing off their faces causing them to collapse. The object flies back into the woman's hand and she puts it back on her hilt. She runs screaming with her sword out and suddenly Jessie hears a familiar voice say "Find the Chakram, and you will find your true self!" Jessie wakes up gasping for air, sweat running down her face. 

Sydney and Beth rush into her room with worried looks on their faces.

"Jess! Are you ok?!?" Sydney asks worried, "We heard you wake up and gasp for air!" 

"Did you have another nightmare ?" Beth asks worried as she pulls a lock of hair from Jessie's face. 

Jessie shakes her head no, "No, it was weird." Jessie says confused, "It was like I was back in like ancient times in a battle scene of sorts. There was this woman battling a group of men and she was amazing! She was taking on an army by herself! All of the sudden, she took something off her belt and flung it at a couple soldiers who just fell dead to the ground. The object came back to her and she took off running." Jessie wipes her eye, "I felt drawn to her for some reason. Then I heard a voice say something, but I couldn't remember what it was, then I woke up." 

Beth and Sydney looks at each other concerned."Do you want us to stay with you Jess?" Sydney says, "We can stay with you until morning." 

Jessie shakes her head, "No, I'm good." Jessie says, "I called Aunt Kira and I'm heading out to Arizona the day after tomorrow."

"Wow, that's quick." Beth says, "We should go out before you leave."

"Yeah, like a girls night out, just the three of us!" Sydney says as Jessie smiles. 

"I'm only going for a few months." Jessie says, "It's not like I'm going off forever. But hey, a night out with you two does sound good!" Jessie grabs Beth and Sydney hand, "I will be ok, don't worry." They all smile and have a group hug. "I have a feeling everything will be ok in the end." Jessie says smiling.


	2. The Reunion and Forging A Friendship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, you will get introduced to. Jessie’s Aunt Kira, who has a major role in this story. Also, you’ll get introduced to Lester Jacks, who sort of reminds you of a bumbling sidekick from the Xena Universe. It also introduces the other main character of this story, Abigail Covington. I went back and forth on how to introduce her in the story and I went with a major issue of today that is serious, but it bonds Jessie and Abigail together. Also, be on the lookout for one of our favorite Goddesses from the Xena universe. I did change her up a bit! It was fun giving her a total character change! Plus we get the first glimpse of Ares!

Jessie's plane lands at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Jessie grabs her bags and walks to the meeting site. Restaurants and shops surround this part of the airport. She takes off her sunglasses and slides them into the inside pocket of her leather jacket, she reaches into the pocket of her blue jeans to pull her phone out when a tall man in his late 20's taps her shoulder. She quickly turns around causing her ponytail to swing to the other side of her shoulder. She grabs the guys wrist, as if protecting herself from danger.

"Woah there!" the guy says, "You’re Jessie right?" 

Jessie then releases the guys hand and says seriously, "I’m sorry! Can I help you?" 

"I'm Lester Jacks. I work for your aunt at the ranch." he says, "We got a delivery of new horses in and your aunt had to stay back at to take inventory. She sent me to get ya!" 

Jessie looks at the guy dressed in jeans a button upped western style shirt, cowboy boots and hat. With his weird eyes and annoying jawbone Jessie looks him up and down and becomes unamused by his goofy looks, giving him a weird smirk. "Here let me take your bags.." Lester says as he starts to grab them. 

"I got it." Jessie says grabbing her bags. 

"But Miss Jessie, your aunt gave me instructions to help ya out at all times." Lester says with a goofy smile, "Let me help ya!" Jessie sets down her luggage and Lester picks them up "Come on!" Lester says happily as he and Jessie starts to walk out of the airport. 

Jessie shakes her head, giggles to herself and says in her head "Oh boy! This is going to be fun!"

In an old pick-up truck, Jessie looks out the window as Lester starts to whistle a song not heard of in the modern era, but for some reason, it’s familiar to her. She stares at him with a sarcastic look on her face. He then looks at her, seeing that she's not amused and stops. "Um, sorry Miss Jessie." Lester says obliviously, "Family song. Been in my family for generations." 

"Ok." Jessie says.

"So, Miss Kira says you're from New York." Lester says trying to make small talk. 

"Up state New York." Jessie says. 

Lester looks over at her and asks, “So, what do you do? Are you in college?"

“I'm entering my 3rd year of college." Jessie says, "I just need a break." 

Lester looks back on the road, smiles and says. "Your aunt is real excited to see ya Miss Jessie! That's all she talked about this week!" 

Jessie smiles then grabs her wireless headphones from a bag and puts them on. Lester can see that she isn't into small talk and just continues driving.

\-------------------

About 30 minutes outside Sedona, Lester pulls into the sprawling Papas Ranch. While he drives down the long dirt road leading to the main house, Jessie takes off her headphones smiling at the reddish mountains that wrap around the land. A spark ignites in her eyes as the beauty of the land amazes her. Lester then stops in front of the main house and they get out of the truck. He takes her bags out of the back, "I'll set these in the main house for ya Miss Jessie." Lester says happily. 

"Thanks." Jessie says as she looks around soaking in the beauty. She walks to the end of the truck, taking off her sunglasses, "Wow! It's still beautiful!" Jessie says happily staring out at the mountains.

"It's sure is darling!" says a female voice behind her. Jessie turns around to see her Aunt Kira. Kira, 51 years old, stand around 5'7, about 130 pounds with brownish hair and a lighter blue eyes than Jessie's. She is wearing, jeans, boots, a t-shirt and a jean jacket. They share a warm embrace 

"Aunt Kira!" Jessie says happily, "I've missed you so much!" Kira looks at Jessie with amazement. "Wow! You have grown since I last seen ya!" Kira says a tear runs down her face.

"What's wrong." Jessie says concerned.

"Nothing sweetie." Kira says smiling, "It's just that you are the spitting image of your ma." 

Jessie smiles softly at her and says, "Yeah, I've been told that." 

Kira looks around the ranch. "Well now, let's get you all settled in! Come on!" Kira says as they walk to the house.

Sitting on a big comfy leather chair, Jessie looks out the huge window watching the mountains. The living room has a cozy, yet rugged vibe to it with western art hanging on the walls, some Southwest pottery and rugs on the floor and leather furniture giving it a rustic feel. Kira walks in carrying a tray with two mugs and a carafe with coffee. "Now you have free reign over the ranch Jessie." Kira says as she pours coffee into mugs and hands Jessie one, "Don't be afraid to go out riding. You still ride horses?" 

Jessie puts her mug down and shamefully looks at the floor, then at Kira "No." Jessie says, "With being at boarding school then college, I really didn't have the time. Beside, Andrea didn't want the stables on the property anymore."

Kira then gets an angry look on her face and says, "Riding was your passion Jess! I can't believe she took that from you! It was the only thing that made you happy." Kira then walks to the fireplace and says, "You know I never liked that woman Jessie." Kira looks at a picture of Zara and her when they were teens and then back at Jessie and tells her, "But I guess your sisters and you needed a mother."

"She is not and never will be our mother Aunt Kira." Jessie says seriously. "But for some weird reason she makes our dad happy." 

Kira walks over to Jessie and puts her hand under her cheek causing Jessie to smile. "Your mom would be so proud of you." Kira says smiling as she sits in front of Jessie. "Your sisters have been keeping me updated on you and I don't want to push you on these nightmares you've been having, but I want you to know that when you're ready to talk, I'm here for you." 

Jessie looks out the window with a little pain in her eyes. "You can stay here as long as you want." Kira says as Jessie hugs Kira. 

"Thanks!" Jessie says smiling, "This means a lot to me, letting me come out here and everything!"

"You're family sweetie!" Kira says smiling, "Once you start riding again, things will become much clearer for ya!"

"Well, do you have a gym or workout room here?" Jessie says, "I have a workout routine I do every morning. It keeps me focused." 

"Well no, sorry Jessie." Kira says, "But there is a huge workout center at our local college about 15 minutes from here. I can make some calls and you can go workout whenever you want." 

"Thanks. That would be great." Jessie says, "Could I borrow a truck in the morning then?" 

Kira smiles at Jessie and says, "I got something better that I'd think you'd like! Follow me!"

A few minutes later Kira and Jessie open a barn door to an old shed, they walk in and Jessie looks around. "Sydney told me that while you were at boarding school you took up riding motorcycles." Kira says as she walks to something that's covered up by a tarp. 

“Well, since I couldn’t ride horses at the time, I needed something to do.” Jessie says. “Riding a motorcycle became my only option.” 

Kira takes the tarp off and in front of Jessie is an old Harley. Jessie's eyes get big with excitement 

"What the.." Jessie says happily shocked, "This is awesome!" She walks around it, studying it, amazed by its rugged beauty. "You, you didn't have to do this Aunt Kira." 

Kira puts her finger to Jessie's mouth, "It belonged to your mom." Kira says grinning. 

Jessie gets this shocked look on her face. "Before your parents met, your mom rode this bike all the time. She felt relaxed after riding it. When your parents got married, she asked me to put it away for her. I had it restored about six months ago and Lester takes it out to keep it running." 

Jessie gives her a weird look. "You let that goofball touch this beauty of a machine." Jessie says sarcastically. 

"He might be a goof and an idiot at times, but he keeps things running here for me when I can't fix stuff by myself." Jessie looks in awe at her mother's old bike, "Well, go on Jess! Start her up!!!" Kira says smiling. 

Jessie hops on the bike and starts it up, revving the engine. A smirk comes across her face as Lester walks in. 

"Hey! What's going on!" Lester say. "Herd the.."

"Out of my way!" Jessie yells as she kicks the kickstand up and rides the bike out of the shed and down the road.

"Hey does she even know how to drive that!" Lester says confused. 

"More that you know how to Lester." Kira says happily as she watches her beloved niece ride off down the road with a huge smile on her face.

............

The next morning Jessie walks out of the women's locker room of the huge workout center of Sedona's local college. She is dressed in jeans, a white t-shirt and leather biker boots. She had her hair in a ponytail and is carrying a gym bag. She starts to walk out when she hears a noise coming from the hallway outside the gym. "Leave me alone!" a young woman yells. Jessie throws her bag down and runs into the hallway to see three guys cornering a young, blonde haired woman underneath a stairwell.

"Whats the matter babe. Can't handle big boys." says the ringleader as he has her pinned up against a wall. 

"Leave me alone!" says the young woman with a very scared look on her face. The guy kisses her neck as she tries to squirm away. 

"Come on! We just want some fun!" the guy says as he starts to unbutton her shirt. He starts to unbutton her pants and just as he was about to force himself on her, he is suddenly yanked back and is slammed into another staircase. "What the fuck!" he says stunned. 

All of the sudden Jessie kickboxes the guy in the stomach. He tries to swing at her, but she blocks his swing, right hooking him in the nose, breaking it and causing him to fall to the ground gasping for air. His two friends run at Jessie but she does a swing kick to the head of one of the guys causing him to go flying into a towel rack and knocking it down as he falls to the floor. She then blocks a swing from the other guy, twisting his arm around and slams his head into a wall. Meanwhile, the young woman, who was thrown to the ground during the ordeal, watches in amazement as Jessie subdues all three guys. Her blue-green eyes widen in amazement as Jessie takes on all three guys with ease!! When the fight is over, one guy crawls over to the other guy who starts to get up, wiping blood from his busted lip. They go over to their buddy who's nose is severely broken.

"My nose!" the guy says, "Coach is going to freak!" 

"Pick up your piece of shit friend up and get the hell out of here!! Now!" Jessie screams, "And if I ever see you three lay a hand on her I will finish what I started! Now go!" 

The three guys become scared, get up and run off. Jessie then takes a breath and walks over to the young woman and looks down at her concerned "Are you ok?" Jessie says worried. 

The young woman grabs her glasses that was knocked from her face and puts them on. "Yes, I.." the woman says, "You... That was amazing." The young woman then looks up at Jessie and suddenly becomes awed by the beautiful, yet athletic woman.

"Are you ok?" Jessie says again concerned, "Those guys were about ready to gang rape you! Do you need to get checked out? Or go to the campus police?" 

"I'm fine. Thank you." the young woman says. 

Jessie puts her hand out, "Here, let me help you." Jessie says as she takes the young woman's arm and helps her up. The young woman brushes off her jeans and buttons up her shirt and starts to pick up her books. Jessie kneels down to help her.

"Let me help." Jessie says as they pick up books. 

"Thank you. Oh my god that was amazing." the woman says, "Those are star athletes from our baseball team and you just wasted them." 

"Well, you looked like you needed some help." Jessie says smiling. 

"I, I could've handled them." the woman says. “Really I could!!”

Jessie raises her right eyebrow and gives the woman a half smirk. "Ok." Jessie says with a chuckle as they stand up. "Are you sure your ok." 

"Yes, thank you." says the young woman. "I'm Abigail, Abbie for short, but I go by either name."

"Nice to meet you Abigail, I'm Jessie." Jessie says. "Do you want me to walk you somewhere just in case those jerks stalk you out or something."

"No, I'm done with classes till later this afternoon. I was going to drop my books off at my dorm room and walk into town and get an early lunch." says Abigail. "How about I treat you to lunch." 

"No, you don't have too." Jessie says, "Its ok." 

"No!" Abigail says seriously, "I want to. You saved me from those creeps, at least let me buy you lunch!" Jessie smiles at her, "Ok, lunch it is." Jessie says.

Abigail smiles at her and says. "My dorm is at Delta house, just across from here. Meet me there."

"Will do!" Jessie says smiling.

About five minutes later Abigail comes out of her dorm house and sees Jessie waiting for her on her bike. Abigail's eyes open in shock as she looks on in amazement at the old Harley. Jessie with her sunglasses and leather jacket on looks at Abigail and smiles, "You ready!" Jessie says.

"Wow!" Abigail says, "Nice bike!" 

"Thanks." Jessie says, "I don't have a helmet for you, so hold on very carefully, ok." Jessie puts her arm out and Abigail grabs it and hops on the back of the bike. "Hold on tight, you can trust me." Jessie says, "Just tell me where to go." Abigail nods her head yes and wraps her arms around Jessie's stomach. Jessie turns on the bike, revs the engine and heads off out of the campus.

About 10 minutes later they pull up to a small diner on the outskirts of town. A big pink sign reading Di's Cafe with a pink heart hangs above the door. They get off the bike and Abigail says, "You'll love this place. It's a little retro inside, but Di makes the best food around." They walk into the diner and it's like walking into a retro 80's diner from a sitcom. Pink walls and 80's memorabilia blanket the place. Jessie looks around, not knowing how to take this. 

Suddenly coming out of the kitchen is Di, the owner of the diner. With her flamboyant blonde curly hair and 80's style waitress uniform, she looks like she walked out of the 80's. But for being in her 40's, she still has a young vibe. She looks over at Abigail and smiles.

"Well hey there Abbie! I was wondering when you'd show up!" Di says, "How's my favorite college freshman!" 

"Good Di." Abigail says, "You know I'd eventually show up." 

Di looks at Jessie and says, "I see ya brought a friend. Hi I'm Di, owner of this awesome diner and Goddess extraordinaire!" 

Di snaps her fingers as Jessie chuckles, "I'm Jessie." she says. 

"Awesome to meet ya Jessie!" Di says, "You two sit down and I'll grab ya some menus! Abbie, a sweet tea right?" 

"Yes." Abigail says, "Lots of ice and a lemon."

"Same here." Jessie says, "And a water please."

After they place their orders Abigail looks at Jessie and starts the conversation.

"So I notice you're not from around here." Abigail says, "Are you transferring to the campus?" 

"No, I go to NYU." Jessie says. "I'm just taking some time off, visiting my Aunt who has a horse ranch about 20 minutes outside of town." 

"That huge ranch just past the Red Rocks!" Abigail says happily, "I've always wanted to go hiking up there."

"I'm sure my Aunt won't care if you go hiking on the trails sometime." Jessie says smiling.

Abigail looks down at table then to Jessie, "I truly want to thank you for what you did for me earlier Jessie." Abigail says, "I never had anyone come to my rescue. I owe you big time."

Finally realizing what happened Abigail's hands start to shake. Jessie grabs them and looks at her with a worried look, "It's ok." Jessie says, "Are you sure you don't need to get checked out or something."

Abigail takes a deep breath, "I'm fine.” says Abigail as she smiles at her, "It just hit me what happened, I'll be ok. Now, like I said, I owe you big time." 

Jessie shakes her head no, "No, really, you don't owe me a thing. she says, "I just wanted you to be safe from those assholes." They stare at each other, as a serious look comes across Jessie face, "I have an idea." Jessie says, "How about after your morning classes you meet me at the gym and I can teach you how to protect yourself, show you some self-defensive moves." 

Abigail smiles at Jessie, "You'd do that for me?!?" she says. 

"Yes, I would." Jessie says smiling at her while looking at her nerdy clothing. "Just dress accordingly." They look at each other, smile and giggle a little.

Di comes out of the kitchen carrying a tray with food on it, she sets Jessie's plate down, "There you go Jess!" she says, then she puts a huge plate in front of Abigail, "One Abbie special!"

Jessie's eyes get wide as she looks at the huge burger and fries and the short yet small Abigail. "Let me tell ya Jessie, this girl might be small, but she can eat with the best of them!" Di says as she grabs the tray, smiles at them then go back into the kitchen. 

Abigail looks at Jessie with a half grin and says "High Metabolism!?!" They both laugh and start to eat their lunch.

\--------------------

The next morning, Abigail walks into the woman's gym. She is dressed in sneakers, yoga pants, sports bra, tank top and her long blonde hair is in a ponytail. She walks around the gym and finds Jessie, punching a huge punching bag. Jessie, wearing her trademark sneakers, yoga pants and sports bra with her hair up. She concentrates on each blow as her gloved fists hits the bag. Abigail watches Jessie in awe. With her toned arms and firm abs, Abigail can tell that Jessie is a powerhouse with sexiness that mixes very well with her 5'9 height.

Abigail pushes her glasses up. "Hi Jessie!"" Abigail says excited.

Jessie stops her workout and looks at Abigail and smiles, "Hi Abigail!" Jessie says as takes her gloves off, “I was just finishing up here.” Jessie grabs a towel and wipes her forehead. “Ready for your first lesson?”

“Uh, yeah.” Abigail says still in awe. 

“Ok, lets go!” Jessie says as she looks at Abigail. “How much do you need your glasses?” Jessie asks. 

“Well, only for reading once in a while, but I really don’t need them at all.” Abigail says, “Why?”

Jessie walks up to Abigail, takes both her hands and gently takes Abigail’s glasses off revealing her blue-green eyes. The move blows Abigail away as Jessie looks at her and smiles. “You won’t be needing these then.” Jessie says as she hands Abigail’s glasses to her.

A few minutes later Jessie and Abigail are in front of the punching bag and Jessie is tightening a pair of boxing gloves on Abigail. “Ok, first thing I want you to do is concentrate on the bag, focus and with all your strength, start punching the bag. Abigail starts punching the bag, not hard, but not like a wussy either. “Ok, now pretend this bag was that creep that was trying to force himself on you.” Jessie says seriously. Abigail gets a angry look on her face and starts hitting the bag harder. “That’s it!” Jessie says as she stands behind Abigail, “You’re doing great!”

All of the sudden Abigail uses all her strength and hits the bag so hard, it bounces back and hits her causing her to fly backwards into Jessie!! They both fly to the ground, landing on their backs. Abigail quickly sits up and looks at Jessie with a scared look on her face. “Oh my God Jessie, I’m so sorry! Are you ok!” Abigail says worried. 

Jessie turns her head to face Abigail, gives her a serious look, then starts laughing real hard. Abigail looks at her with a puzzled look on her face. “You’re laughing?” Abigail says seriously. Jessie stops and looks at her. 

“You should’ve seen it from my point of view!” Jessie says smiling, “You hit the bag so hard you just flew right into me!” Jessie starts to laugh again. “It could’ve been one of those funny YouTube moments!!” Jessie continues laughing as Abigail looks at her a little angry. Jessie stops, looks at her and smiles. she sits up and smiles, “You got to admit, that was funny.” Jessie says. Abigail smirks, then chuckles a bit. They both lay back on the floor and laugh.

—————————-

Meanwhile, back at the Decker home, Andrea is in the dinning room on her cell phone. “Where the hell have you been?” Andrea says with anger in her voice. “I’ve been trying to get a hold of you or a week now!” 

On the other end is Dr. Aaron Smith. With his dark hair, goatee and dark eyes, he has a suave look to him. “I’ve been busy.” he says seriously. “What do you want.” 

“Jessie decided she was going to leave for a semester and go off by her aunts in Arizona!” Andrea says.

Aaron rolls his eyes in a uncaring way. “Now which one is this?” he says unamused. 

“The youngest one.” says Andrea, “She has some anger issues. We had an argument about her leaving school and she just about ripped my arm off. She’s lucky I didn’t kill her right there!”

Aaron gets this devilish grin on his face and says. “Well she is an adult now. And the few times I met her when she was younger, she ignored me. You then decided to ship her off to boarding school because you didn’t want to deal with her. Are the two other sisters like her now?” 

“No.” Andrea says, “Sydney is a little mouthy, but Beth has matured.” 

Aaron sighs and says, “It has to come to one of them. One of them knows about it and where it is.”

“I’m guessing it’s Beth or Sydney, they are older, more stable. Jessie, she’s has many anger issues.”Andrea says. 

Aaron looks unconvinced. “Don’t guess, know.” he says angrily, “Or did your spirit soften as time goes by.” 

“Don’t ridicule me!” Andrea yells. “All three girls are desentants. One of them has to know where it is.” 

“Well, you better stop playing step-mother and find out!” Aaron yells and hangs up. He gets up and walks to the mirror and stairs into it. Suddenly he morphs into his true self, Ares, God of War. Wearing black boots, jeans and a black vest, he stares into the mirror with an evil look. “Well now. It’s been a while since I seen little Jessie. Maybe I should look in on her and see what kind of anger issues she has. The unstable the better I always say.” He snaps his fingers and sees an image in the mirror of Jessie. He stares at her and his hands start to shake as he looks at her eyes. He clenches his fist as a shocked look comes across his face. He see images of her working out, sparring with Sydney, and her fighting moves. He watches her argument with Andrea, when Andrea goes to slap her, but she defends herself and pins Andrea against the wall. He then sees the image of Jessie wasting the three guys that tried to gang rape Abigail. “NO!” he screams, “It can’t be!” Ares freezes an image of Jessie and stairs at it again. “It can’t be!” Ares gets an evil, twisted look in his eyes. He starts to laugh then suddenly disappears into thin air.


	3. Building A Bond And Finding Her Roots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessie and Abigails friendship starts to grow in this chapter. Abigail starts to come out of her shell and Jessie reveals to her what happened to make her the way that she is today. Also Jessie gets to know her mother more through stories from her Aunt Kira, who is only revealing some of the truth. Jessie also has another dream of the warrior woman and now her fighting companion  
> (To some, it's a boring chapter, but it gives some insight on Jessie and her mother Zara)

A few weeks have now passed. Jessie and Abigail are in the woman’s gym working on fighting techniques. Abigail has since chucked the glasses and she now wears just a sports bra with the yoga pants and sneakers. You can see that Abigail has started to form six pack abs as her workouts have become more intense. Abigail blocks a swing that Jessie throws and swing kicks towards Jessie’s stomach making sure not to connect with her. Jessie then does a low swing kick to try and make Abigail stumble, but Abigail jumps and does a fake strike blow to Jessie’s back. Jessie quickly moves out of the way, jumps up and swings at Abigail, but with each swing, Abigail flawlessly blocks them.

They start moving around the gym, blocking each other’s swings. You can see the intensity in each other’s eyes as they focus on the lesson. Jessie then swings at Abigail, who blocks the swing by twisting Jessie’s arm around, grabbing the back of her neck and pinning her against the wall. “How’s that!” Abigail says smiling. 

“Excellent!” Jessie says proudly. Abigail releases Jessie and they grab a towel and wipes the sweat off their faces.

“So, do you think I can handle those creeps now Jessie?” Abigail asks. 

Jessie smiles at her and says, “You’re getting there! You’ve done a great job learning everything I’ve been teaching you.” 

“Jessie, can I ask you something?” Abigail says, “Where did you learn to fight like this?” 

Jessie gets up, throws the towel around her neck and looks at Abigail seriously. “It’s a stress reliever of sorts.” Jessie says, “It calms me.” 

Abigail looks at her not convinced, “Fighting calms you?” Abigail says seriously. 

Jessie looks away, takes a deep breath and looks back at Abigail. “I have anger issues.” Jessie say. 

Abigail looks at her shocked. “I can’t tell.” Abigail says. 

Jessie starts to pace back and forth, then looks at Abigail, seeing a trusting look in her eyes. She looks down at the ground then back up at Abigail and says with a sad look on her face, “When I was five years old, my older sisters and I witnessed our mother being murdered.”

Abigail gets a sad look on her face and covers her mouth in shock. “Oh, oh my god Jessie! I am so sorry.” Abigail says sadly, “I didn’t mean to push you like that.”

Jessie shakes her head, “No, it’s ok.” Jessie says as she looks to the ground.   
Abigail looks on as Jessie tells her what happened, “Our dad was on a business trip for his dad’s tech company and was due home that day. My mom, my sisters and I just came home from a trip to the museum. We were in our family room playing, when my mom heard something. She walked to the surveillance camera that my dad had installed and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, so we started playing again only to hear a loud crash coming from upstairs. My mom told us to hide in the closet and she ran out of the room. A few minutes later she walked into the room with a gun to her head.” 

“Did you see who it was?” Abigail says. 

Jessie shakes her head no and says, “It was all a blur. My sisters and I then peeked through the closet door to see the person was in all black. We couldn’t see the face, but we knew it was a woman. Her voice was very evil and scratchy. I remember that because the voice scared me and I buried my head in my sister Beth’s shirt.” Jessie starts pacing again. “We started to peek through the door again and my mom and this woman was yelling about something. The woman cocked the gun and pointed it to my mom’s head, but my mom was able to knock the gun out of her hand and a fight broke out.” Jessie looks at Abigail with a tear running down her face, “The next thing I remember is my dad had my sisters and I upstairs and police were swarming the place.”

Abigail then gets up and puts her hand on Jessie’s arm with a concerned look on her face, “We had blocked a lot of it out.” Jessie says, “Our Aunt Kira flew up that day and wouldn’t let us out of her sight. The next few weeks were a blur. Investigators tried to question us about what happened, but we were just to traumatized. It’s a cold case right now. Aunt Kira stayed with us for a few months and she tried to put some sort of stability back in our lives. But then, our dad met Andrea, our step-mother, and Aunt Kira decided to come back to the ranch. Within a few months our dad and Andrea got married.” Jessie gives a half smirk, “I guess he thought we needed a mother and the first couple years Andrea was really cool. She would take us shopping and when I use to ride horses, she took me to lessons and stuff. But then as we got older, we started talking about our mom again. Andrea flipped. I think she may have thought that if we talked about our mom to our dad, he’d fall out of love with her. She started to condemn us every time we talked about our mom. Then, one day she convinced our dad that we needed counseling. So, we started going to a friend of hers from college who was a therapist. He freaked me out, so my dad said that I didn’t have to see him. When I was fourteen, Andrea and I got in a huge argument about it and the next thing I knew, I was being packed off to boarding school.”

“Wow, she seems like a total bitch.” Abigail says. “What did your dad say about this?” 

“Our dad became to busy running our grandfather’s tech company after he retired. Dad, basically left the parenting to Andrea. He did have the final say in stuff, but Andrea made sure he only seen the good side of things.” Jessie says, “Then, during the first year of boarding school I came home for spring break and the first thing I noticed was the stables that my mom had were gone, all the horses sold to a local horse breeder and Andrea was making the land that my mom had for her horses into tennis courts and a huge pool. I freaked out. Riding was the only thing that I had in common with my mom and Andrea ripped it away from me. She stated that since I was away and my sisters were into other things, the stables and horses weren't needed. I started screaming at her in front of my sisters and dad and stormed off to my room. My sisters huddled with me in bed that night, apologizing to me for not remembering what riding meant to me. We decided never to speak about our mom in front of Andrea again. I spent that week in my room, only coming out to eat and to say hi to my dad. I came out here that summer. It was the best summer of my life.” Jessie smiles, “I felt the connection I had with my mom. I was happy for the first time in a long time. Then when I went back to school in the fall, I started having nightmares.” 

“Of what?” Abigail says concerned.

“About the murder.” Jessie says calmly, “At first, it would always come in bits and pieces, like fragments of what happened. I would wake up screaming and my dorm mate Sarah would try and comfort me, but as the nightmares kept coming I would get angrier and angrier. I suddenly became destructive and I was turning into a person I had no control of. Talking to people didn’t help, so I bottled up my feelings and went with the rage that was inside me. One night, I had the nightmare again and I couldn’t handle it anymore and I flipped out. Sarah tried to calm me down, but I ended up pinning her against the wall. Then, out of nowhere Sarah broke free and pinned me to the floor until I calmed down. After apologizing to her, she looked at me and told me that if I didn’t want to talk to someone, I needed to learn to control the rage and anger inside me. She started to take me to her mixed martial arts classes and we would train three times a week, after classes and on weekends. I suddenly enjoyed fighting. It was thrilling, sort of a turn on. But the rage was beginning to take over again. When I was sixteen, I met this one guy, who went to school at a neighboring campus, we had a few flings and he told me about how his uncle ran a fight club. I would sneak off campus and lie about my age to get into them. It was during that time, I became someone I didn’t like.”

“What do you mean?” Abigail says. 

Jessie looks shamefully at Abigail and says, “I needed to fight, like I said, it was a thrill. Every time I fought against someone, I’d win. The promoters loved it. Then one day, Sarah followed me and seen me almost kill another fighter. She got angry, pulled me out of the ring and the next thing I knew, I woke up in the next morning in our dorm room with a huge headache. She looked at me with pure anger in her eyes and said that if I valued our friendship, the fighting I was doing had to stop! She said the look in my eyes when I was fighting was pure evil, like I was a different person, like a destroyer of sorts. She said I needed to find a way to tone down the rage building inside me. So I stopped going to fights and she taught me about meditation, how to relax. Soon, I was able to teach myself that when the nightmares came, to breath before I’d flip out. She helped me a lot that year. We became real close. When school was over for the year and I came home, my sisters could see the change in me. I told them about the nightmares and the rage that I had with them. But, I also told them about what I learned and I started to use our gym during the summer. I even recruited my sister Sydney to help me with my techniques.” 

“Do you still have nightmares?” Abigail says.

“Yeah, but when I do, I can control them by either working out or meditation.” Jessie says smiling. “The nightmares are getting longer though, it’s like they’re trying to show me something. Now that I’m older, I can control them more, but there is a part that I just can’t get past.” Jessie wipes her face with a towel and looks at Abigail and smiles, “You hungry?!” Jessie says.

Abigail smiles at her and chuckles, “When am I not hungry!” Abigail says smiling. 

“Come on, let's grab some food!” Jessie says as they stand up, “Abigail, thanks for listening.” Abigail puts her hand on Jessie’s arm and smiles at her. “You’re the first person I’ve really opened up to about this.” Jessie says smiling. 

“I will always be here for you Jessie.” Abigail says smiling tenderly at Jessie. They share a hug, and as they do, a faint glow appears, surrounding them. They stare at each other, feeling a connection and smile as the glow fades, 

“Come on, let’s go! Di is probably wondering where we are.” Jessie says smiling.

————————————————

Later that night, Jessie lays in her bed, sound asleep. Her mind suddenly drifts off to ancient times and the warrior woman is fighting a band of raiders. She now has a fighting partner, a short woman with short blonde hair. The blonde wears what appears to be a leather bra, showing off her toned six pack abs and shorts made of leather and cloth. She is fighting a raider using what looks like a long fighting staff. She swings the staff at the raider, sending him flying, she runs and jumps over two raiders, taking her staff and bashing it into the raiders back, causing them to fall in pain. A raider sneaks up to the blonde and the warrior woman screams at her. “Gabrielle!” The blonde takes her stick and rams it backwards into the raiders stomach. She kicks the raider in the face causing him to fall to the ground. As the blonde is fighting one group of raiders the warrior woman takes her sword and stabs two raiders. She sees her partner is in trouble and calls out a battle cry. She runs, then twirls through the air, landing about ten feet from the action. She takes out the round weapon and she throws it in the air. Suddenly it separates into two half objects, slicing the raiders. The blonde woman quickly ducks as the two objects fly past her. they suddenly form back together as it glides back into the warrior woman’s hand with ease. Holding it in front of her, she stares at it and gives a grin. Suddenly the voice of Zara speaks to Jessie “You are the one. Find this and avenge me.” Jessie jolts out of the dream gasping for air, she looks around and shakes her head. she stairs seriously at the ground, “What the heck is going on!!” she says calming down. She lays back down puzzled by the dream.

——————————-

The next morning, Jessie is in the living room staring at the pictures of Zara that sit on the mantle. She grabs a picture of Zara, dressed in western clothing, on a horse. She looks around eighteen in the picture. A tear rolls down Jessie’s face as Kira walks in and notices the moment. A sad look comes across Kira’s face, but she shakes it off and smiles.

“Morning Jessie.” Kira says. 

Jessie puts the picture back on the mantle and wipes a tear from her cheek. “Oh, hey Aunt Kira.” Jessie says, “I was just looking at these pictures of my mom.” Jessie looks down at the floor, “Aunt Kira, what was my mom like?” Kira walks up to Jessie and puts her hand on her shoulder. “I remember her, but I was so little. All I remember was that she was loving and beautiful. I want to know who she was.” 

Kira smiles at Jessie, “Come on honey, let's sit down and talk.” Kira says as she grabs Jessie's hand and they sit across from each other.

“As far back as I can remember, your mom was a spitfire of a woman.” Kira says smiling, “Even when we were kids, she always was full of life. Our mom died when we were young and even though our dad had this huge ranch, he raised us the best way he could. While I was laid back, your mom was always full of life. While I was taking riding lessons, your mom would be out exploring or taking karate lessons. Our dad said we were total opposites, but he encouraged us in anything we wanted to learn. When we became teenagers, your mom started riding horses again, which made my dad happy. Then one day, they started talking about family history, about his daddy’s brother who was a famous college dean from South Carolina and his daughter Mel, who was also famous for reading ancient scrolls.” 

“Is this Mel Pappas still alive?” Jessie asks 

“Oh lord, no.” Kira says, “Back in the mid 50’s while visiting dads folks, Mel and a friend of hers were killed in a tragic fall while discovering the caves up in the mountains. Grandpa and Lester’s Grandpa found their remains the next day when they didn’t return back to the ranch. Their remains were flown back to South Carolina and they were buried next to her dad. Anyway, getting back to your mom, when she was sixteen, daddy gave her money to pick out a horse that she wanted to train, instead, she came home with the motorcycle.” Kira and Jessie then start to laugh. 

“How angry was he?!?” Jessie asks smiling. 

“My daddy never raised his voice until that day!” Kira said smiling, “He read your mom the riot act, but your mom stood her ground and kissed your grandpa on the cheek and told him that even though she loved horse riding and training them, the bike called to her also. He let her keep it with the promise that she’d keep up her dream of becoming a horse trainer. And then a few years later while your mom was giving lessons on horseback riding, your mom met a handsome young college senior from upstate New York who was on spring break and it was love at first sight.” They both smile. “You have a lot of your mama in you Jessie.” Kira says, “You are strong willed, caring and adventurous, just like her. She would be so proud of you.” They get up and hug each other. 

“Thank you Aunt Kira.” Jessie says happily, “I’m meeting Abigail for lunch, will be back later.”

“Hey!” Kira says, “I’m glad you met a friend, you should bring her out here. I’d like to meet her.” 

“Will do!” Jessie says smiling then walks out of the house. 

Kira walks over to the mantle and looks at the picture of Kira. “I only told her half of the truth sis.” Kira says looking at the picture, “I just pray that when she finds out the whole truth, she’ll have the strength to deal with what will happen.”


	4. On A Lighter Note

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok, you have to have a funny and light chapter in this story! Abigail tells Jessie more about herself. Abigail meets Kira, we get to see Lester in all of his bumbling glory, Jessie one ups Lester when a familiar horse comes into the picture, Abigail has a vision of ancient times, she gives Lester a warning and Ares and Aphrodite go at it over Jessie and Abigail!! This is where I started to have a little fun with Aphrodite! You will get to see this other side of her later in the story!

A week has now passed and Jessie and Abigail are sitting at the diner. Jessie is in her jeans, t-shirt and boots. Abigail choice of clothing has changed along with her new found confidence. She is wearing tight fitting blue jeans, a white t-shirt and boots, with her hair in a braid. They both have their signature glass of sweet tea in front of them. Jessie looks at Abigail and smiles, “So, since I told you most of my life, I want to know about you.” Jessie says curiously.

Abigail takes a sip of her sweet tea and smiles at Jessie and says, “Well, I’m from Texas, my dad owns a construction company, my mom is a chief and caterer, I have a fifteen year old sister named Racheal and I’m going to college to study something I really don’t want to do.” 

“What’s that?” Jessie says intrigued. 

Abigail looks at the table, then back up at her and says sarcastically , “Archaeology. It’s my dad’s dream for me to become a famous archaeologist because his Great Aunt was a one back in the 40’s and 50’s. He never even met her, he wasn’t born yet. But my grandpa would talk about her like she was a superhero of sorts. My dad would say that Janice Covington could find the Arc of the Covenant if she wanted to, but she was more into ancient scrolls or something like that. Anyway, when my mom and him got married, he said that his first daughter was going to follow in his great aunt Janice’s footsteps.” Abigail leans into Jessie, “They were even going to name me after her!” They both start to laugh, “Thank God my mom put her foot down on the name choice. But my dad was obsessed with me following in a dead aunts profession. I was interested at first, but it’s just not what I want to do.” 

“So what do you want to do?” Jessie says. 

Abigail takes another sip of her tea, looks at Jessie says, “I want to travel, explore places, meet people and write about my adventures. Not dig for bones and artifacts just to make my dad happy.” 

“Why don’t you tell him you want to do something different?” Jessie asks, “I mean, it’s your life.”

“I guess there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to disappoint my dad.” Abigail says, “He’s stubborn, set in his ways. It’s either his way or no way. He’s very old fashion. The thing is, I’ve always done my own thing, which he hates. We’ve even came to blows when he found out I was writing a blog about some of my stories. At least my sister follows the rules.” 

“What does your mom think about this.” Jessie says. 

“Well, my mom has even crazier ideas for me.” Abigail says, “She wants me either to be married, barefoot and pregnant, or one of those Dallas socialites married to some rich guy. She tried hooking me up with all her friends or clients sons, but I just wasn’t interested.” 

“You don’t want to get married one day?” Jessie asks. 

“If I want to be with anyone, I want it on my terms. Besides, no one has captivated my heart yet.” They stare at each other and smile. 

Di comes out of the kitchen with a tray of food, sets plates in front of them, “Here you go my beautiful babes!” Di says smiling, “You two just rock my world!” Di walks away from them and into the kitchen.

“Are you free after lunch?” Jessie asks, “Want to go for a ride?” 

“Where too?” Abigail asks. 

“To my aunt's ranch, I want you to meet her.” Jessie says smirking, “You up for it?!?” 

Abigail smiles “Yeah, I’d love to meet your aunt!” she says. They suddenly stare at each other and the glow that surrounded them at the gym appears again, surrounding their bodies

Di looks out of the kitchen window, smiles and says. “By the Gods! I can feel the connection happening! Come on you two! You can remember!”

An hour later, Jessie and Abigail pull up to the horse stables where Kira is carrying a saddle out of the barn. Jessie and Abigail gets of the bike and walk over to her. 

“Hi Aunt Kira.” Jessie says. 

Kira smiles at them and says, “Hey honey.” She then looks at Abigail, smiles and says, ”You must be Abigail.”

Abigail puts out her hand, “Nice to meet you Ms. Pappas.” Abigail says. 

Kira shakes her hand and says, "Call me Kira. Formalites make me feel old. So you’re the Abigail, my niece talks about. It’s finally nice to meet you.” 

Abigail and Jessie smile at each other, then out of nowhere Lester comes running around the side of the barn, being chased by a wild Palomino horse, “Hey! Whoa!!” Lester screams at the horse, “I just wanted to put the saddle on you. 

Jessie and Abigail look on as the horse chases Lester into a corral, Abigail looks confused at Jessie and asks, “Who’s that?”

“That is Lester, the idiot that works for my aunt.” Jessie says smirking at Abigail. 

“He looks like he’s in trouble!” Abigail says puzzled. 

“That is just how Lester is.” Kira says. All three ladies run to the fence and hop on a fence rail, Abigail takes her phone out and starts recording the event. “Lester, what the hell are you doing!!” Kira yells, “I told you not to try to tame that horse, it’s to wild” 

“But Ms. Kira, I can do this! Lester says as he grabs a saddle, trying to throw it on the horse, “You are gonna get broke you stupid horse.” Suddenly the horse gets angry and tries to stomp on Lester,

As she’s recording the whole event, Abigail leans into Jessie, smirks and says, “Your right, he is an idiot.”. 

Lester jumps over the fence and lands on the ground, all three woman look at him seriously. He looks at them and says, “Just so you know, I come from a long line of horse tamers!”

“Maybe it skipped your gene pool.” Abigail says sarcastically. 

Jessie then looks back at the horse as it bucking all over the corral. “I’m going in.” Jessie says seriously. 

Lester gets up and looks at her, “If I can’t tame that horse, what make you think you can!” Lester says seriously!!

“Just watch me.” Jessie says smirking at him. 

Kira looks at Jessie with a concerned look on her face and says, “Honey, you could get hurt! That horse is way too wild.” 

Jessie looks at her smirks and says, “So am I.” She then jumps into the corral and circles the horse as it raises its front legs. She grabs the saddle, “It’s ok.” she says softly at the horse, “You can trust me. Shh!” The horse starts to calm down as they both lock eyes with each other, “That’s it girl.” Jessie says smiling, “You’re doing good.” The horse makes a few noises. “Shh.” Jessie says as she puts the saddle and bridle on. “Good girl.” 

Kira, Abigail and Lester looks on in awe as Jessie straps on the saddle. she whispers in its ear, “Ok, I’m Jessie, I just want to ride you. You don’t have to be afraid of me.” She goes to pet the horse and all of the sudden a vision of the warrior woman on a similar horse flashes in front of Jessie. She comes to and the horse blinks at her. She gives the horse a strange look as if they knew each other. “Ok, don’t be afraid.” Jessie says as she gets up on the horse and into the saddle. She takes the reins and the horse starts bucking all over the place. Jessie pulls the reins up “Whoa girl calm down!” Jessie says firmly. The horse gradually calms down while everyone looks on in shock and awe. Jessie rides the horse around the corral, jumping over a bale of hay and landing in front of everyone. “Whoa Girl! Whoa!” Jessie commands. Horse calms down and stops in front of everyone. Kira and Abigail clap their hands and whistle!

“That’s my girl!!” Kira says proudly as she claps her hands, then slaps the fence! She then looks at Lester and says, “That is how you tame a horse! I taught her that when she was fourteen!”

Lester looks on confused at both Kira and Jessie as Jessie jumps off the horse. She pats it gently and says, “Good girl, good girl!”

“Oh my god Jessie! That was amazing!!” Abigail says excited, “I got it all on my phone!”

Jessie ties the reins to the fence, walks over and grabs an apple from a barrel and gives it to the horse. “There yeah go!” Jessie says smiling at the horse, “Good girl!” 

She looks at Abigail and jumps on the fence smiling at her, “Send it to me!” Jessie says happily, “I want to send it to my sisters!” 

“Already done!” Abigail says smiling at her. 

Kira smiles at Jessie and says “Wow! I’m so proud of you Jess! Now, you know the rules, you break the horse, it’s yours!” 

“Hey!” Lester says angrily, “I found and scoped that horse out for a week!”

“I know you did Lester, but Jessie broke it.” Kira say with a smirk on her face. The ladies jump on the ground, “You know the rule.” She looks at the girls, “How about I strike up the grill for steaks girls!”

“That sounds great!” Jessie says. She looks at Lester with a smirk and says, “Thanks Les, I’ll make it up to you!”

Lester gets a goofy smile on his face “Really!” he says. “How about a date?!?” 

Jessie looks at him seriously and says, “Not in your wildest dreams.” He looks down at Abigail and she shakes her head no as the ladies start to walk off.

“Hey Lester, put the horse in the stall next to mine will ya.” Kira says.

He shakes his head still not believing what had happened, takes the reins and leads the horse to the stables. “You’re still a stupid horse.” Lester tells the horse. It suddenly kicks Lester in the ass and he starts to stumble but catches himself, “Ok, I’m sorry!”. The horse laughs as Lester takes it in the stables.

————————-

Later that night, Jessie sits in front of a computer screen connected to FaceTime with Beth and Sydney. “Hey you two!” Jessie says smiling. 

“Jessie!!” Sydney says happily. “That video you sent us! Holy shit!! That was amazing!”

“Yeah it sure was!” Jessie says.

Beth smiles at her and says, “How’s it going out there sis. You look so happy!”

“I am.” Jessie says, “For the first time in a long time I feel happy again.”

“You know, Aunt Kira has been filling us in on you and this Abigail.” Sydney says

“Yeah, you two have become good friends, right?” Beth says, 

“Yeah, we have.” Jessie says smiling. 

“Aunt Kira says you’ve open up to Abigail about a lot of things. You never talk about your feelings to anyone, not even to us.” Beth says, “She must be really special for you to spill your heart out like that.” 

Jessie smiles tenderly, “Yeah she is.” Jessie says, “It’s weird. It’s like we have some sort of connection."

Beth and Sydney smile at Jessie, “That’s great sis.” Beth says, “She must have some kind of effect on you.” 

“Why do you say that?” Jessie asks. 

Sydney chuckles a bit and says, “You smile just talking about her Jess. We can see it in your face. She has an effect on you.”

“Anyone who makes you smile like this, it has to be special.” Beth says, “Cherish this moment Jess.”

“I am.” Jessie says, “More than you know.” 

The sisters finish up their chat, but little do they know in a room next to Beth and Sydney, Andrea stairs into a laptop. Watching their conversation via a hidden camera. She stairs at them with an evil look as twirls a strange broach on her necklace.

The next morning Jessie and Abigail are in the stables. Jessie is brushing her new horse while Abigail looks on. “You know, I’ve been thinking about a name for this beauty, but I just can’t think of one that fits her. Jessie says, “Pick a name for me.” 

Abigail looks surprised, “Are you sure?” she says, “You did all the work breaking her. It should be your call.” 

Jessie smiles at Abigail and saysl, “You’re the creative one, surprise me!” 

Abigail smiles and looks at the horse, “You are such a beautiful horse.” Abigail says to the horse. it wags its tail at her and Abigail laughs. “And a playful thing too.” Abigail goes to pet the horse and suddenly a vision of a blonde woman from ancient times riding on a horse similar to this one flashes across her. The blonde woman has short pixie type hair cut and is wearing warrior attire of the time. 

“Abigail!” Jessie says concerned. “You ok!”

Abigail shakes it off and looks at Jessie. “Yeah, I’m fine.” Abigail says as she looks at the horse. “Name her Blaze.” 

Jessie smiles and looks at the horse. “Blaze!?!” Jessie says in agreement, “I like it! Blaze it is!” The horse shakes her head in agreement to the name.

Lester walks into the stables whistling that song again then stops. “Morning!” he says as he walks to the girls. He looks at Abigail. “I never introduced myself yesterday little lady, I’m Lester. Ranch hand guru of this place.” 

“Hi.” Abigail says unamused, “Abigail.” 

Lester looks her up and down, smiles and says “So, you’re Jessie’s friend.”

“Yeah and!?!” She says trying to brush him off. 

“I was wondering if you’re not doing anything later, we could go for a bite and get to know each other.” he says.

“Not interested.” Abigail says seriously. 

“Oh come on Abbie, just one date.” Lester says, “I could be the cowboy of your dreams.” 

“I said not interested!” Abigail says seriously. 

Lester leans in to try and kiss Abigail but she slaps his face, takes his arm, twists it around his back, grabs the back of his neck and throws him up against the wall as Jessie looks on smiling. “I said not interested!” Abigail says angrily. 

“Ow! Ow! Let go please! I’m sorry!” Lester screams.

“When a lady says no, it means no jackass!” Abigail says angrily in his ear!

“Ok! Ok! I’m sorry! Let me go! Please ow!” Lester says scared. 

Abigail releases her grip as Jessie walks up to them and gives a devilish smirk to Lester. “Ow that hurt!” Lester says as he stretches his arm. He then places his hand on his jaw and moves it around. 

“You deserved it!” Jessie says seriously. 

“Well she didn’t have to almost kill me.” Lester says a little shocked.

“That’s nothing compared to what I might have done to you!”Abigail says seriously.

“Apologize to her.” Jessie says, “Now! And mean it!”

Lester takes a breath and looks at Abigail. “I’m very sorry Abbie.” Lester says “Please forgive me.” She looks at him still with a pissed off look on her face. “Please! I promise it won’t happen again.” 

She walks up to him and stares him down. “You’re an idiot!” Abigail says. 

“Ok, I’m an idiot! he says, “Please! I’m sorry!”

“The next time you pull something like that, I’ll rip your balls off and shove them down your throat! You got it!” Abigail says seriously.

Lester's eyes get wide as he is shocked by what she said. “If I were you, I’d just walk away right now Les!” Jessie says to him with a smirk on her face. Lester walks out the stables but gets a grin on his face and says smiling. “She likes me”

“Not if you were the last man on Earth!” Abigail yells!

Jessie smiles and looks down at Abigail, “I’m very proud of you.” Jessie says. 

Abigail looks up at her, “He’s still a jerk.” she says still angry. 

“That he is, but you did great!” Jessie says as they turn around. She then looks at Abigail and says “You know, you look cute when you’re pissed off.” Abigail smiles at her and Jessie hugs her and gently kisses the top of her forehead. “You are coming out of your shell.” Jessie says to her. “Don’t ever be afraid to show this side of you.” 

They walk out of the stables, but little do they know, Ares has been watching the whole ordeal. He has an evil look in his eyes and fists are clenched. He suddenly disappears to his throne room and lets out a yell so loud, that it breaks a statue. “Damn it!” he screams, “Another irritating blonde! And she’s just like her!” he sits on his throne looking angry, “And there’s even another idiot!” He puts his hands over his face, then stares off into the distance. He gets up from his throne and yells, “Dite, I know you’ve been there with them! We have to talk now!”

All of the sudden Di appears, she looks around and then morphs into her true self, Aphrodite, Goddess of Love. With her long pink gown, sexy lingerie and flowing blonde hair, she looks at the shattered statue and then at him. “Well, hello Ares” Aphrodite says as she looks around, “I see you still can’t control your anger when you don’t get your way.” 

“Oh shut up!” Ares says annoyed, “You knew about this!” he says angered. " And you're helping them!"

"Just a little push!" Aphrodite says with a smirk, ‘You shouldn’t interfere with destiny Ares.”

“I can do what I want, I am the God of War!” Ares says as he starts pacing around. 

“They are destined to be together.” Aphrodite says, “Their spirits have finally found each other.”

“Not if I can help it!” Ares says seriously. “I can’t believe she was hiding right under my eyes all this time. You know the saying, always watch out for the loners. What I don’t get is how come I didn’t realize it was Jessie. I mean, she’s no destroyer of nations at all! But with today's society and some molding from me, I can turn her into the ultimate warrior!!” 

“Whatever your planning, scrap it right now!"Aphrodite says seriously, “You know your plans always end up failing!” Ares gives his sister a cold look. “Besides, Jessie isn’t her. She is a descendent of Xena and she has some of her traits, but she’s her own person.” 

“Maybe, but you haven’t seen her rage, her anger like I did! That was her!” Ares says with a devilish smile, “I’d know the Destroyer of Nations anywhere!”

“You’re dreaming Ares.” Aphrodite says 

“Ok, she may or may not be her, but she has the makings of a new destroyer! I have spent the past two thousand years waiting for the perfect descendent of Xena and she was there right in front of me!”

Aphrodite gets a weird look on her face, “How did you find Jessie?” she asks seriously.

Ares looks at her with a smirk, “It doesn’t matter!” he says as he gets a serious look on his face, “But now that I’ve found her, why must there be an irritating blonde in the picture!” 

“You better not harm Abbie!” Aphrodite says angrily, “She’s a good friend of mine!” 

“She’s irritating!” Ares says, “She’s always making Jessie happy, just like..”

“Just like how Gabrielle made Xena happy!" Aphrodite yells, ‘Listen Ares, I don’t know what’s going on in your head, but you better lose it right now'"

"Why! What are you going to do Dite!?!” Ares says seriously, “Sprinkle your love dust on me or something!” 

Aphrodite gets in his face and seriously says, “You know I’m all about love Aries! That’s who I am! But let me warn you brother, love can hurt!”

“Are you threatening me?” Ares says in anger. 

“No! This is just a warning!.” Aphrodite says seriously, “Stay away from them!” Aphrodite vanishes in a ball of pink glitter.

Ares clenches his fists and says, “You dare threaten me!” Ares says angrily, You want a fight Dite! You got it! I will make Jessie mine!! Even if I have to get rid of the blonde in the process!!”


	5. The Cabin, the Staff And A Shocking Discovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessie, Abigail and Lester come across a cabin belonging to Jessie’s grandfather. They discover an old backpack and an ancient staff, which is drawn to Abigail is a way that shocks everyone. They also come across an old article that links Jessie and Abigails families together. Jessie has an encounter with one of Abigail's professors, Aphrodite has a visit from her favorite brother and Kira sets Jessie on the path to discovering the truth. (This is where the story gets serious, linking Mel and Janace into the story)

A couple days later, Jessie and Abigail are on horses riding through the trails that surround the ranch. Jessie is in her trademark jeans and black t-shirt and boots, while Abbie is in jeans, boots, a white t-shirt and a long sleeved denim shirt. They stop at a creek so Blaze and the other horse can get a drink. “This is beautiful out here!” Abigail says, “How much land does your aunt have?” 

“I think all the way to the mountains” Jessie says as she looks around. 

Lester rides up to them and says. “Morning ladies! How are you enjoying your ride?” 

“It’s nice.” Abigail says as she looks at him in a pissy mood.

”Listen Abbie, I am really sorry about the other day.” Lester says sincerely, “If you get to know me, you see that I’m not really a jerk.” Both Jessie and Abigail look at him seriously. “Can’t we all start over and try to be friends?” Lester says sincerely. 

“Fine!” Abigail says, “Just don’t try anything and we’re all cool!” 

Lester throws his hands in the air, “I promise.” he says. He looks over at Jessie who is mesmerized by something in the distance. “Hey Les, what is that about two miles away?” Jessie says intrigued, “Is it an old stable or something?” 

Lester looks where Jessie is pointing, “Oh heck naw!” Lester says smiling, “That’s your Grandpa’s old cabin!” Jessie gets a shocked look on her face, “Your Grandpa had that cabin built when he use to go exploring up in the mountains. He didn’t want to travel all the way back to the main house, so he had the cabin built!” 

Jessie and Abigail look at each other intrigued! “You want to go check it out!?!” Jessie says smiling. 

“You know I do!” Abigail says.

“Now I think your aunt lost the keys, ya might not be able to get in!” Lester says seriously.

“We’ll see!” Jessie says as they get back on their horses and start riding off in the direction of the cabin. Lester shakes his head and follows them.

About 15 minutes later, Jessie, Abigail and Lester ride up to the cabin. They get off their horses and tie the reins to the old post. Jessie looks around in amazement. “Wow!” she says. she walks around the cabin, admiring the structure. “When was the last time Aunt Kira was out here?” she asks. 

“Don’t know?” Lester says, “I think maybe 5 years ago. I was away working on my uncle Virgil’s farm at the time.” 

Jessie walks up to the door and turns the doorknob noticing that it locked. “Like I said earlier, I think she lost the keys. And she won’t be back from the horse show until the weekend.” Lester says.

Jessie jiggles the knob trying to get in. “Hey, hold on. Move!” Abigail says smiling as she walks up to the door. she takes a bobby pin out of her hair. She twists it around and looks at Jessie and Lester. She puts the bobby pin in the lock, jiggles it a bit and the door pops open. Jessie looks at her shocked but smiling, “It was the only way I could sneak into the media room after school!. I’ll tell ya the story one day.” Abigail says smirking. 

“Yeah! Please do!” Jessie says as they stare deep into each other’s eyes

All three of them walk into the old cabin. Dust lingers everywhere while blankets are draped over chairs and a huge leather couch. A small kitchen is set up in the corner, but it has modern appliances in it. 

“This is so cozy.” Abigail says as she looks around, 

They discover a bedroom and a full bathroom and a huge walk in shower. Jessie then walks up to the fireplace mantle and wipes off a picture frame to reveal a picture of her mom looking at a sunset. Zara is smiling as if she is staring at something. Jessie smiles at the picture as Abigail walks up to her and sees it. 

“Is that your mom.” Abigail asks smiling. Jessie shakes her head yes as her eyes start to well up. She soon composes herself. “She was a very beautiful woman.” Abigail says smiling, “You look just like her.” 

Jessie sets the picture down, “Yeah, I guess I do.”she says smiling at the picture. 

“I really don’t think we should be here.” Lester says. 

Jessie looks at him smirks and says, “I’m family. Besides, Aunt Kira said I had free reign over the whole ranch.”

Abigail leans on a closet door, it jiggles open and an old backpack and an old staff falls out. “What’s this.” Jessie says as she kneels down to check it out. She picks up the staff and stairs at it with awe. 

“What is it?” Abigail says intrigued.

“I don’t know? It looks like some sort of ancient collapsible walking staff.” Jessie says as she fully extends the staff. She studies the staff and sees ancient writing on it. 

”What kind of language is this?” Lester says confused. 

“It looks like some sort of ancient Greek writing.” Abigail says. 

“Do you know how to read it?” Lester asks. 

“Not yet, I’m only in my freshman year of collage.”Abigail says, “I won’t get to the full Greek language till next semester, but let me look at it for a moment.”

Jessie hands Abigail the staff and all the sudden Abigail has a vision of the blonde warrior woman. She is holding what looks like the same exact staff and fighting a band of raiders with it. She is very athletic as her fighting style is similar to Abigails. The blonde warrior runs up a wall and does a back flip, knocking the raiders out with the staff.

“Abbie!! Abbie!! You ok?” Lester says noticing Abigails mesmerizing gaze at the staff. 

Jessie stands up and looks at Abigail worried. “Abigail!” Jessie yells. Abigail snaps out of her vision, but all of the sudden she starts twirling the staff around using her defensive training. She swings it towards Lester's head, but he ducks just in time. 

“Hey! What the hell!” Lester says angry, “I apologized earlier!” 

Jessie steps in front of Lester as Abigail swings the staff towards him. Jessie grabs the staff as Abigail starts to bring it down. “Abigail!” Jessie says seriously, “Snap out of it! What’s wrong!” As Jessie takes the staff from her, 

Abigail snaps out of her daze and looks at Jessie a little scared, “I, I don’t know!?! For some weird reason, that staff called to me.” Abigail says stunned, “What happened?” 

“Well for number one, you almost took my head off with that thing!” Lester says a bit angry, “I apologized and I’m being nice, and you tried to kill me again.”

Abigail looks shocked at Jessie, “I had to step in and stop you.” Jessie says to Abigail, who looks at Lester in shock, 

“I’m sorry Les.” Abigail says ashamed, “That’s so not me.”

Jessie puts the staff down, “Well, let's put this stuff back in the closet.” Jessie says, “I want to ask my aunt if I can come back here and just explore this cabin.” Jessie picks up the backpack and puts it in the closet, an old newspaper falls out of it behind her. 

Lester grabs the staff and says, “I got this! I don’t want my head taken off!” 

Abigail looks down notices the newspaper, “Hold on, an old newspaper fell out the side of the backpack,” she says. Abigail picks the paper up and notices the front page. The paper is from the Sedona Sun and is dated June, 1956. The main headline reads:

Two Major Archaeologists Killed in Freak Climbing Accident Near Red Rocks

Abigail looks at the pictures and sees a picture of Janice Covington and Melinda Pappas, she gets a shocked look on her face. “Oh my God!” Abigail says, “Jessie look!” 

Abigail hands Jessie the newspaper and Jessie gets a shocked look when looking at the pictures and names. 

Lester stairs at the pictures also, “Do you know these ladies?”, he says. “ You two sort of resemble them. Not exactly, but the resemblance is there.” 

Jessie and Abigail look at each other in shock. A minute later, all three of them are sitting on chairs reading the article. “A tragic climbing accident claimed the lives of famous archaeologist Janace “Mad Dog” Covington and Dr. Melinda “Mel” Pappas sometime this Friday after they were reported missing by Ms. Pappas cousin RJ Pappas. Their bodies were found by Mr. Pappas and his friend Mick Jacks.” Abigail says. 

“Hey, that’s my grandpa!” Lester says.

“Officials with the sheriff’s department determined the women were exploring the mountains when their rope broke and gave way.” Abigail says, “The sheriff's department have determined that it was an accident. Janace Covington was a famous archaeologist, famous for discovering ancient scrolls back in the early 40’s. These scrolls were deciphered by Dr. Pappas during the discovery. The scrolls told a story of an ancient warrior woman who once was know as “The Destroyer of Nations” during the times of the Ancient Greek Gods and Goddesses. She redeemed herself and saved many lives in the process. These scrolls were written by her traveling companion know as The Battling Bard of Potidaea. This bard told stories of their adventures and their battles for the greater good. This writer, or Bard, was also possibly the warrior woman’s soulmate.” Abigail and Jessie look at each other in pure shock. “You know what this means, right!?!” Abigail says.

“Our relatives knew each other!” Jessie says.

A few minutes later Abigail is pacing the floor, Jessie is staring at the floor in shock and Lester is looking at the article. “I can’t believe my Great-Great Aunt and your distant cousin knew each other and worked side by side with each other!” Abigail says. 

“When I asked Aunt Kira about my mom, she told me about when my mom was around sixteen, grandpa and her started talking about past relatives and about how his one cousin was a famous doctor, able to read ancient scrolls and how her and a friend died in a climbing accident. Wow! This is insane!”

“The thing that gets me is why were they here.” Abigail says, “They were famous scientists. What brought them here?”

“Well, my grandpa is gone, plus my mom.” Jessie says

“My grandpa passed a decade ago.” Lester says.

“The only one who might have any info on these two would be Aunt Kira. I guess we wait till she gets back.” Jessie says. 

Abigail looks at them with a smirk, “Or we could take this paper to my world science professor, Dr. Henry!” she says, “He might know something about Janace and Mel.”

————-

The next morning, Abigail knocks on the door of her professor Dr. Henry, “Come in.” a male voice says. Abigail enters the office and sitting at a desk is Dr. Mike Henry. He is wearing tight jeans and a white polo shirt. He is very athletic for being in his 50’s. His high cheekbones and ruggedness gives him a Godlike look. “Well hello Abbie, can I help you?” 

“ Hi Dr. Henry. My friend and I found an old article, we want to ask you some questions about it. My friend should be here shortly with it.”

Suddenly there is a knock at the door, “Come in.” Dr. Henry says. 

Jessie walks in with the old newspaper, she looks at Abigail and says, “Here’s the paper.” She then glances over to Dr. Henry and gets a weird look on her face. 

“Jessie, what’s wrong?” Abigail says.

“Excuse me, but have we met before?” Jessie says.

Dr. Henry stairs at her and smiles, “No, I don’t think so.” he says. 

“You just look familiar.” Jessie says smiling, “Anyway, Abigail, a friend and I were exploring an old cabin on my aunt's ranch, when we came across this old news article.” Jessie hands the paper to Dr. Henry, he stares at it and looks at them half smiling. “The two women in this article were relatives of ours. We want to know more about them.” Abigail says. 

Dr. Henry takes a big breath, “Dr. Janace Covington and Dr. Melinda Pappas. Two extraordinary women.”, he says, “Together they discovered one of the greatest parts of ancient history.” 

“What’s that?” Jessie asks. 

“The Xena Scrolls.”, Dr. Henry says. 

“What are the Xena Scrolls?” Jessie asks.

“It tells about one of the greatest warrior woman that ever lived, Xena: Warrior Princess. I have a class to teach now, but feel free to use the library to learn more about her.” Dr. Henry says as he hands the paper back to Jessie.

“Will do Dr. Henry.” Abigail says smiling, “Come on Jessie, let's walk to my next class. Goodbye Dr. Henry.” 

“Bye Abbie, nice to meet you Jessie.” Dr. Henry says smiling. 

“You too.” Jessie says smiling back at him. Abigail and Jessie walk out of the room. 

“Ok, things are starting to come together.” Dr. Henry says as he gets up, “I guess it’s time for that visit.” Dr. Henry gets up and leaves his office.

About a half an hour later, Di walks out of the kitchen. She sees a patron with a menu at his face, “Can I help ya darling!” Di says cheerfully. 

Dr. Henry sets down the menu and smiles at Di, “Hey there! Can we talk.”, he says smiling.

“Sure, just let me change the atmosphere!” Di says as she snapped her fingers and suddenly they are transported to Aphrodite's throne room. It’s pink, of course, but it radiates love. Suddenly Di morphs into Aphrodite and looks at Dr. Henry who morphs into his true self, Hercules. Aphrodite give Hercules a huge hug, “How’s my favorite brother doing!”, she says smiling. 

“I’m doing good sis.” Hercules says. “I met Jessie.” 

Aphrodite smiles at him and says, “Isn’t she awesome! They’re finally coming together!.” 

“Yes they are.” Hercules says, “They showed me the article about Janace and Melinda’s death. I just hope they discover everything soon.”

“It’s so awesome that after all this time, they are reuniting.” Aphrodite says, “And it’s all thanks to us!’

“Well, appearance wise, they are a bit different, but their personalities and traits are coming together.” Hercules says, “Jessie smiled at me and asked me if we knew each other from somewhere. I had to hold back and lie to her.”

Aphrodite smiles at him, then gets a serious look, “I do have some bad news though.” Aphrodite says, “Ares knows about Jessie and Abigail.” 

“HOW!” Hercules says angry. 

“I don’t know, you know we can’t read his mind.” Aphrodite says.

“What did he say?” Hercules asks. “Does he know who they are? 

“No, I don’t think so, he knows that they are descendants and he is hell bent on making Jessie his new protégée. He’s even willing to kill Abbie in the process.” Aphrodite walks around, “I won’t let that happen Hercules. Abbie is coming into her true self and I will do anything possible to stop Ares!”

Hercules looks at her and chuckles, “Sis, I love you, but the Goddess of Love can’t destroy the God of War.”, he says.

Aphrodite looks at him seriously, “Hercules, I’ve been around forever. I’ve seen everything, but these past two thousand years or so, I have seen love lose it’s way. It has sort of jaded me, changed me in a way. ”Aphrodite says, “I am still the Goddess of Love , but now, I will do anything in my powers to keep Jessie and Abigail together. I owe them that. We brought them back together with the help of Archangel Michael, I won’t let Ares destroy them.”

Hercules looks at Aphrodite seriously, “We can’t help them.” he says, “We have to let them find out everything on their own. We promised Micheal we wouldn’t help them.” 

“That is true”, Aphrodite says, “But when the time comes and it gets messy, we will step in. I will make it happen.”

———

A few days has passed, and Jessie sits in the living room at the ranch, looking out the window at the mountains when Kira walks in, “Hey sweetie!” Kira says, “Long drive back, but I’m glad I’m home!” 

“Hi Aunt Kira!” Jessie says happily, “Glad your trip was good.”

“So what’s been going on here.” Kira says, “Lester still trying to get Abigail or you to go on a date with him!” 

Jessie laughs and says, “No, we all decided just to be friends. I have to tell you something.”

“Is everything ok back home.” Kira says concerned. 

“Everything’s fine.” Jessie says, “Sit down.” Kira sits across from Jessie says, “A few days ago Abigail and I were riding the trails, Lester caught up with us and as I was looking around, I came across something on the west side of the ranch. Lester told me it was Grandpa’s cabin, so all of us went to check it out.” 

“You have free reign over the property, I told you that!” Kira says smiling.

“Lester said you lost the keys to the cabin, but we sort of picked the lock. I’m sorry Aunt Kira, if you didn’t want us being in there, we won’t go back there.” Jessie says concerned. 

Kira gets up and walks to a box sitting on a table, she opens the box up and takes out a key and puts it in her pocket. “It’s ok Jess, I’m not mad.” she says smiling at her. 

“We went in and was just looking around when Abigail accidentally opened a closet door and an old backpack and a staff of some sorts fell out. We studied the staff and then went to put everything back when an old newspaper fell out the side of the backpack. The newspaper was from June, 1956. And the headline told about two famous archeologists who died in a climbing accident. It was our distant cousin Mel Pappas and her friend Janace Covington.” Jessie says.

“Oh wow, that’s interesting!” Kira says excited. 

“Aunt Kira, Abigail's last name is Covington. Janace Covington was Abigail's Great Great Aunt.” Jessie says. 

Kira gets a shocked look on her face, “Oh wow!”, she says. “That’s amazing!”

“They knew each other, worked together and discover some wild stuff.” Jessie says, “Would it be ok if Abigail and I check the cabin out. We want to learn more about Mel and Janace. We want to find out why they were here.” 

Kira reaches into her pocket, takes out the key and hands it to Jessie, “Here ya go.” Kira says, “Go, explore, I trust the both of you.” 

Jessie gets an excited look on her face and says, “Lester said you lost the key!”

“Lester doesn’t know this whole ranch.” Kira says, “Enjoy your exploration, you have my blessing.” 

Jessie hugs Kira, “Thanks!” Jessie says as she starts to leave, “You’re the best!” 

Jessie walks out of the room. Kira looks at the picture of Zara and her, “And so it begins sis.” Kira says, “Look over the both of them, please.”


	6. Discoveries, The Nightmare And Ares Plan Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessie and Abigail reveal some things to each other. They also start their quest on learning about Mel and Janace. Jessie nightmare reveals more to her. Jessie and Abigail bond over the nightmare, Ares makes a threat and sets his plan in motion. (You get to see what happened to them after The Xena Scrolls event. Plus, while reading the journal entries, you can hear Janace and Mel tell their sagas!!)

The next day, Jessie and Abigail are at the cabin. After a good cleaning, they sit across from each other in two comfy leather chairs.

“This place is so peaceful!” Abigail says, “Your aunt was so cool letting us come in here” 

“Yeah, she’s always been like that.” Jessie says smiling

“So, I have to ask you a question Jessie.” Abigail says smiling, “The other day when we went to see Dr. Henry, were you checking him out? I mean, for an older guy, he is very attractive and all." 

Jessie shakes her head and laughs, "No! I mean, he is very attractive, it's just that.." She looks down at the ground then back at Abigail, "Have you ever met someone and felt like you knew that person from like, a past life or something. That's the vibe I got off of him. I don't know about the past life stuff, but I felt like I knew him, from long ago." 

"Maybe you two were lovers in a past life." Abigail says. 

"No!" Jessie says strangely, "It felt like we were good friends at one time. Almost like he saved me, like a brother type figure." 

"I get it." Abigail says, "I believe that some souls are distended to reunite in the future, either family, friends, lovers or enemies. It all comes back full circle." Abigail chuckles, "If my parents heard me say that, I'd be shipped off to some church retreat or something."

"That bad huh." Jessie says as Abigail shakes her head yes, "Ok, now I got to ask you something now that we're alone. What happened the other day when you grabbed that staff? You kind of scared me a little."

Abigail gets up and walks to the fireplace, she looks at Jessie, “You remember when you asked me to name Blaze and I went to pet her.” Abigail says, Jessie shakes her head yes. “When I went to pet Blaze, I got a vision.” 

“What kind of vision?” Jessie asks seriously. 

“A vision of a young woman, back in ancient times, she was small, yet athletic, and she was on a horse just like Blaze.” Jessie looks at her intrigued, “And then, when we were here at the cabin and you handed me that staff, I had another vision of the same woman. And she was using a staff identical to the one in the closet. She, she was amazing! She was fighting these bandits or raiders using the staff and her fighting skills were similar to mine. She totally kicked these guys ass. She even ran up a wall, did a backflip and smashed two guys with the staff,” 

Jessie gets this puzzled look on her face. “And then, when I snapped out of my vision, it was like... Like I turned into her. I felt comfortable and wasn’t scared to be her.” Abigail says. 

Jessie gets up with a serious look on her face and starts to walk around, “Right before I came here, I had a weird dream. It was about a woman from ancient times. I don’t know if she was a general of an army or what, but she could take on an army by herself if needed.” Jessie says, puzzled, “Then I had another dream of the woman and she had a fighting partner similar to who you explained. It was all foggy, but it felt real.”

“It’s going to sound weird, but maybe Janace and Mel want us to finish something they started.” Abigail says. “Well then, if that’s the case let’s start finding out what brought them here.” Jessie says. A while later Abigail and Jessie are sitting next to each other on the huge leather couch, Abigail has her laptop out and she Googles Janace Covington and Melinda Pappas. Suddenly a bunch of old articles pop up in the search engine the first thing that comes up is their discovery of the Xena scrolls. “Ok, Jessie, you ready.” Abigail says excited.

“Go for it.” Jessie says. 

Abigail clicks on the link and an article from the mid 40’s pop up. Abigail starts to read the article, “ Janace and Melinda vaguely tells the reporter of how they came across the scrolls. Even though they didn’t go into details, they said that the discovery chances everything about Ancient Rome and Greece. Unfortunately, most of the scrolls were stolen by an idiot named Jack from New Jersey who was posing as a solder from the French Foreign Legion. Melinda did go on to say that reading the scrolls, she discovered that Xena and Gabrielle were soulmates and fought together for the good of humanity. When asked what their next exploration will be, Janice said that they were on the hunt for Xena’s Yin/Yang Chakram and other artifacts that belonged to Xena and Gabrielle. When asked why they are so interested in a long ago legend, Melinda just briefly said that it was personal.” Abigail says. “We finally have a name of the woman who fought alongside Xena! Gabrielle! Such a beautiful name!” They both smile, 

“But what’s the big mystery that they discovered?” Jessie says, That’s what I want to know.” Jessie gets a weird look on her face. “Abigail, type in Xena’s Yin/Yang Chakram”, Jessie says, “I want to see if there is a photo and what it looks like.” Abigail types in Xena’s Yin/Yang Chakram and a drawing of what it may look like pops up. The artist is none other than Janice Covington. Abigail and Jessie study the drawing and all of the sudden both of them have a vision. Jessie’s vision is of Xena throwing the Chakram, it glides through the air, splits in two and comes back the her in one piece. Abigail's vision is of Gabrielle dressed in ancient Asian clothing catching the Chakram after some kind of battle. It glades into her hands as she stares at it with determination in her eyes.” They both snap out of their visions and Abigail puts the laptop down and look at each other in shock. 

“What happened!?!?” Abigail says a little scared, “Did you have a vision?” 

“Yeah!” Jessie says, “What was yours about.” 

“Gabrielle has the Chakram in some kind of battle.” Abigail says, “It flies back to her and she looks at it with determination in her eyes.” 

“My is Xena easily throwing the Chakram, it splits in two and comes back to her as one.” Jessie says. “What the hell is happening?” 

“Why are we having these visions.” Abigail says. “Do you think the visions are about this Xena and Gabrielle?” 

“Yeah.” Jessie says, “But why?” Jessie gets up and walks to the closet, she opens it and grabs the old backpack, “Maybe we might find something in here.” she says as she sets it on the table in front of them. She opens it up and finds papers regarding a lecture Janice gave on the Xena scrolls, what looks to be two old passports, one of Janice and one of Mel, two old journals and what looks like an old map of the Red Rocks. Both Jessie and Abigail look at the items with awe. 

“Where do we begin?” Abigail says.

After Jessie looks over the lecture notes, she discovers they really weren’t helpful. They then look at the journals. “Well, let's see what’s in these.” Jessie says as she picks up a journal and starts to read it.

February 1942

After nearly being captured by the Nazis, Mel and I were able to escape to Brazil. We boarded a cargo ship in Africa thinking it was going to at least Mexico. We are now in the jungles of the rainforest trying to make it back to the US. The natives have been nice to us, treating us like we are Gods. Hopefully we can find a village where someone can speak some form of English and try and help us get back home. Mel said that when she was going through her dads things, she also found some info on more things about Xena. It is still trying to sink in what we learned in that cave. We are keeping quiet though. Mel is taking the news ok, the events that took place still rattles her a bit. But I can see some pride in her eyes about the whole situation. I’m just glad I was able to detain that evil bastard before he got out of that cave and reeked destruction on the world. Must close now, we are boarding a ship headed north.

Jessie and Abigail look at each other puzzled, “I wonder what they discovered?” Abigail says.

“It must be big if it was personal.” Jessie says, “I guess I should get you back to campus before it gets dark.” Suddenly a clap of thunder is heard and it starts down pouring. “Crap!! It’s raining! Open the door so I can bring the bike in!” Jessie says as Abigail and her jump from the couch. Abigail opens the door and Jessie runs out and brings the bike inside the house and parks it by the fireplace. Abigail checks her phone for a weather report. “It looks like we may be stuck here for the night.” she says, “It’s going to rain off and on through the night.” 

Jessie looks around and says, “Ok, I guess we stay here till morning, I can take the couch.” 

“No!” Abigail says, “This is your family’s place. I’ll sleep on the couch. I just need a blanket and pillow.” 

“Are you sure?” Jessie asks, “I’m fine on the couch also”

“I call the couch.” Abigail says smiling, “No arguing!” She reaches into her bag and pulls out some snacks, “I did bring food in case we get hungry!” she says. Jessie chuckles and says, “Di was right, you can eat with the best of them.” They both then start to laugh. 

———————

Later that night, Jessie is sleeping in bed. Rain falls on the roof and thunder is heard in the distance. She suddenly has the nightmare again, but this time it starts when Zara gets stabbed and falls to the ground. The dark intruder looks down at her and pulls the knife out of her abdomen, “You should’ve listened to me. Now your daughters will pay for your silence.” the woman says as she disappears into thin air. While a young Beth and Sydney are huddled in the corner of the closet crying, young Jessie walks out of the closet and goes to her mom. Zara is gasping for air, she turns and looks at Jessie with a tear running down her cheek. “Hey sweetie.” Zara says as she takes her last breath, “Find the Chakram Jessie. Your true self awaits you.”

“MOM!” Jessie screams as she jolts from her sleep. 

Abigail comes running into the bedroom and sits next to Jessie. “Jessie! Jessie! What’s wrong!” Abigail says worried. She looks at Jessie, who starts to tremble and gasps for air. Abigail hugs Jessie as she tries to calm Jessie down. “Shh. It’s ok.” Abigail says as she holds her in her arms. She takes her hand and runs it through Jesse's long hair, “It’s ok Jessie. I’m here.” 

Jessie looks at Abigail with a tear in her eye, “Stay with me.” Jessie says, “Just until I fall back asleep.” 

Abigail smiles at her, “Ok.” Abigail says. They lay down in bed and Abigail holds Jessie in her arms. Jessie closes her eyes and quickly fall back asleep. Abigail looks at Jessie with compassion in her eyes, feeling a connection in her soul. Jessie holds Abigail tighter and Abigail soon closes her eyes and falls asleep.

In the morning, Abigail opens her eyes and glances over to see an empty spot in the bed. She pulls off the covers and goes into the living room where she sees Jessie sitting on the floor with her legs cross in a meditation position. Meditation music is playing from her phone. Her eyes are closed with her hands by her knees. Abigail slowly moves to a chair facing Jessie and she sits and watches her, mesmerized by the calmness in Jessie’s face. Jessie scenes Abigails presence, “Would you like to join me?” Jessie says to Abigail, 

“Sure.” Abigail says as she sits across from Jessie. 

“Close your eyes, breath, and just let yourself focus on the moment.” Jessie says.

Abigail closes her eyes and starts to breathe slowly. After a while Jessie and Abigail fall into a meditative state. A ray of sunlight shines through the window and hits the both of them. They both have a vision of the Chakram. It is suspended in the air, breaking apart and forming back together. “Find the Chakram, and the both of you will find your true selves.”, a voice says. They both awake from their vision and stair at each other. 

“Wow!” Abigail says, “That was intense.”

“We have to find that Chakram.” Jessie says, “In some weird way, it connects us to something.” Jessie grabs Abigails hand, “Thank you for staying with me last night.” 

“You’re welcome Jessie.” Abigail says, “If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. I just wanted to make sure you were ok.” 

Jessie looks to the ground then back up to Abigail and says, “I seen my mom took her last breath before my sister Beth pulled me back in the closet.”

Abigail grabs both of Jesse’s hands as she looks at her concerned, “Oh my god Jessie, I, I’m so sorry.” Abigail says. Jessie and Abigail gets up and they sit on the couch. “Are you ok, do you need to go talk to your aunt.” 

Jessie puts her hands over her face then looks out the window. “No, I’m fine.” Jessie says as she looks back at Abigail, “We have to find that Chakram and I want to find out who murdered my mother. Who ever killed her wanted something from her, what I don’t know. All I know is we have to find it.”

Abigail puts her head on Jessie's shoulder as Jessie hugs her. “I’m with you on this.” Abigail says as she grabs Jessie's hand. “Let’s find the Chakram, and the bastard who killed your mom.”

————

Back at the Decker house, Andrea sits in her office, Ares appears, but in the form of Dr. Smith. 

“So, anything yet.”, he says, “My patience is growing thin.”

“I am still working on this.” Andrea says, “Where have you been anyway? You’re supposed to be helping me.”

Ares looks at her seriously, “I have helped you more than you know. What have you done!?!” 

They both look at each other, Andrea gets up and walks over to Ares and puts her hand on his chest, “Ares, God of War. Don’t you want to conquer the world again like we planned, or do you want to go back to that old tomb where I found you.” Andrea says with an evil look. 

Ares grabs her throat and starts to squeeze it. She starts gasping for air. “Don’t you dare threaten me!” he says in anger. “If it wasn’t for me, you would still be roaming down there in Hell.” He releases his grip, Andrea covers her throat and walks back to her chair and sits down. “I’m losing my patience with you. It’s been what sixteen years now and still nothing.”, he says, “Oh yeah, you’re spying on Beth and Sydney when they talk with Jessie, ooh.”

“They are going to say something soon.”Andrea says, “I think Beth might be the one who holds the key to where it is. She’s the oldest, her mother had to tell her.”

“And maybe you’ve had the wrong sister picked out all along.” Ares says as he walks around to Andrea and touches the emblem on her neck, “I’m gonna be nice to you. I’m giving you ninety days to find the Chakram, otherwise I take this back and Lucifer will be happy to take your soul back down to Hell for the final time.” 

Ares suddenly disappears as Andrea looks on. She touches the emblem “I will get the Chakram and all of the power that it holds.” Andrea says. “And when I do, I will be more powerful than I ever was.” She laughs methodically in a familiar tone that hasn’t been heard in over two thousand years.

Sitting back in his throne room, Ares stairs at nothing with an evil look. “It is time to bring back the true Destroyer of Nations.” Ares says, “I know deep in my soul it is you Jessie. And I will make you mine, even if I have to destroy who you are now, you will be mine.” Ares gets and evil smile and starts to laugh.


	7. A Mind Trick, The Accident And A Transformation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter revolves around Abigail mostly. Jessie and Abigail learn more about Mel and Janace’s adventures, Jessie explores some caves that lead to an accident that brings them even more closer and changes Abigail forever. Jessie meets Abigails family, Abigail blows up at her dad, and after a break, Abigail resurfaces a completely different person. As a added bonus, you get to see a different side to Aphrodite! This chapter is sort of a tear jerker. Can you guess which episodes I sort of revolved this chapter around?

Jessie and Abigail are at the cabin, looking through one of the journals, “Janace’s entries aren’t consistent.” Abigail says, “Some entries are months and some are years.” Jessie look through it, “Hey, check this out,” she says.

June 1945

After spending a few years in South America, Mel and I are finally back in the States. It’s so good to be home. South America was beautiful, but we need to take a break. Our next mission is a big one. I was able to help Mel locate some information on Xena. Her Yin/Yang Chakram has been hidden throughout the world. It’s last known sighting was in the Italian area, but some also say one of the small towns near Greece. Wherever it is, we must find it. Mel has been going through some scrolls that we do have to see if there are any clues. She amazes me with all of her knowledge. I just wish that jackass hadn’t grabbed the scrolls when we were in Macedonia. My life’s work gone because a descendant of Xena and Gabrielle’s idiot sidekick Joxer grabbed the wrong bag. If I ever see Jack Kleinman again he will regret it. Hopefully by next year we can start our search for the Chakram. Until next time.

“Wow! Janace was a spitfire of a woman.” `Abigail says smiling.

“Yeah like someone else I know.” Jessie says smiling at her. “I just wonder if they found the Chakram.” Jessie grabs the journal then puts it down. She grabs the map and looks at it. 

“It’s a map of these mountains, but the writing is in Greek.” Abigail says, “Must be Mels handwriting. I’m going to try to translate this. I have new software on my laptop that can dichipher ancient writings. I can scan the map and it can give a read out of what is printed.” 

“I’m going to get some climbing gear.” Jessie says, “We are going to climb up there and see if we can find anything. We will just take a look up there for now, when you’ve decipher the map, then we will explore them.”

“Sounds good to me”, Abigail says, “I called my sister last night and I told her that I’m not coming home for Spring Break.”

“Why? Don’t you want to see your family.” Jessie asks. 

“All that’s going to happen is my parents will parade me around at church or at their work.” Abigail says, “I’m done being the trophy daughter to boost my parents reputation in the community.” 

“What did your sister say?” Jessie asks, “Don’t you want to see her?”

“Of course I do.” Abigail says, “Even though we are polar opposites, we understand each other. She said they’ve been to busy with work anyway. I’m always on FaceTime with her, so it’s not like we don’t talk to each other. Besides, this is more important. How about you. You staying here for a while?”

Jesse looks at the ground then at Abigail, “Yeah, I am.” she says, “I called my dad and told him that I wanted to spend at least six months down here, maybe more" 

"What did he say?" Abigail asks. 

"He kind of figured it out." Jessie says, "He knows I do my own thing. Plus, he knows how much Aunt Kira means to me. I love this place, there's too much of a connection with my mom down here.” Abigail smiles at Jessie, “I’ll have the climbing gear by the day after tomorrow.” Jessie says, “It’s up to you and I to do this. If not for us, for Mel and Janace.”

A couple days later, Jessie and Abigail are right at the base of the Red Rocks. They are dressed lightly with just jeans, t-shirts, hiking boots and backpacks. Abigail has a GoPro strapped to her backpack. “So when I get the map deciphered, how long will it take for us to go thru all the caves?” Abigail says.

“Don’t know.” Jessie says as she looks at the GoPro, “So you’re vlogging this?” 

“Yeah, I figured we should document this.” Abigail says, “You don’t mind?” 

“No, I don’t care.” Jessie says, “We will walk the trails first, then if we see something farther up, we’ll climb it. Les said he’d meet us in a couple hours, just to help us figure out where we are.” 

“Ok, let's do this.” Abigail says as they start hiking up the trail. About thirty minutes later they have climbing gear on and they are climbing up part of a huge ledge. Another thirty minutes have past and they reach the top of the ledge. Once on top of the ledge they take their climbing harnesses off and their backpacks. Jessie looks out over the desert while Abigail walks around the large cliff, around the entrance to a cave she comes across a beautiful waterfall that leads to a large pond. 

“Hey Jessie! Come look at this!” Abigail says smiling. 

Jessie turns the corner and looks upon the waterfall and pond smiling at it beauty. “Wow!” Jessie says, “This is beautiful” They both sit down and watch as the sun rises over the waterfall. They look down and see that it’s about a two hundred foot drop from the ledge.

“I never knew this was here.” Abigail says. “This is so peaceful.”

“Yeah, it is.” Jessie says, “I wonder if Mel or Janace ever seen this, or even my mom.” 

“I’m sure they did.” Abigail says smiling at Jessie as they stand up.

“Lets go get our stuff.” Jessie says, “It’s a little more safer over here. We can text Les and give him our location.” Jessie looks into the entrance of the cave, “Then I just want to check this cave out, while you wait for Les.”

After they gather their belongings, they place them by the entrance of the cave. Jessie grabs a flashlight from her backpack and turns it on. “I won’t be long.” Jessie says, “If Les gets here before me, tell him I’m in the cave.” 

“Be careful” Abigail says smiling at her. 

“Don’t worry, I will.” Jessie says as she enters the cave. About ten minutes into the cave, Jessie spots two entrances, she goes into the first entrance. A path leads her around to another entrance where she comes across a small pond surrounded by ledges. She shines the flashlight around looking at the place. She shines the flashlight around the walls, taking the sight of everything in. "Abigail needs to see this!" Jessie says intrigued. She sees a huge hole on a cave wall about twenty feet up and then she walks out and back to the path and out of the first cave. 

She goes into the second cave. She walks in and discovers a pick, an old lantern and an old hat that looks like it belongs out of an adventure novel. She shines the flashlight inside the hat and sees the initials JC inside it. Jessie smiles “I think this hat belonged to Janace!”, she says surprised as she picks it up. She shines the light on the wall of the cave noticing another hole in it. “This might lead to the other cave.” she thinks to herself. Jessie spots a stone with two hand prints on it. She brushes the dirt off it. She then takes her flashlight and shines it around the cave. All of the sudden a flash of Ares appears in front of her. Jessie jolts up, shining the light on him. He disappears then reappears on the side of her. Jessie swings to her left and they come face to face with each other. They stare into each other’s eyes and Jessie has a vision of Xena and Ares. 

Jessie breaks from the vision and without saying a word, Ares says in Jessie mind, “Join me Jessie! Together we can rule the world.” Jessie falls to the ground shaking her head. She picks up the flashlight and sees nobody there.

Meanwhile, Abigail waits outside the entrance to the cave, Lester walks around the cave with some climbing equipment and sees Abigail, “Wow!” Lester says, “You gals are up here! Thanks for leaving the equipment, I forgot my climbing gear. Where’s Jessie?”

“She’s inside the cave.” Abigail says a little worried, “She’s been in there a while, can you go check on her.” Abigail pulls a flashlight out of her backpack, “Please!” 

Lester grabs the flashlight, “Sure Abbie!”, he says, “I’ll go get her! She shouldn’t have went in there alone anyway.” 

Lester turns on the flashlight and goes into the cave. Abigail walks around a bit and suddenly her phone rings. She picks it up and sees it’s her mom, “Crap! Why now!” Abigail says as she answers it, “Hi mom, how are you. Yeah, I won’t be able to come home after exams, I’m, I’m busy on a project for a class. No. I’m up in the mountains right now doing some research. I will FaceTime dad and you later. This is a huge project I’m working on. Mom, I’m losing signal. Can I call you later when I’m back on campus. Mom? Mom?” Abigail hangs up the phone and turns around to see Ares standing in front of her. They both lock eyes and Abigail has a vision of Gabrielle fighting the man in front of her. Abigail curls a fist and goes to swing at Ares......

Lester walks to where the two caves are, he shine the flashlight on both entrances, “Jessie! Jessie! Say something!” Lester says worried. “It’s Les!” Jessie walks briskly out of the second entrance, “Jessie! Thank God!” Les says, “I got worried for a bit.” Les notices Jessie is a little off. “You ok Jess?” 

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Jessie says, “Let’s get out of here. Is Abigail safe?” 

“Yeah, I left her outside the cave.” Lester says. “She’s fine.” Jessie and Lester start to walk back to the entrance of the main cave. About fifteen minutes later they exit the cave, they look around and see Abigail is nowhere is sight. 

“Abigail!” Jessie yells, “Where is she!” 

“I don’t know!” Lester says worried, “She was right here when I went into the cave.” 

They start to search the surrounding area. Lester goes back around the cave and back to the front. “She’s isn’t here!” Lester says worried. “Where is she!” 

Jessie and Lester walk over to the edge of the cliff and looks down into the pond. Jessie sees Abigail floating face down. 

“Abigail! NO!!!” Jessie screams in horror as she jumps over the ledge and dives into the water. Lester throws the rope down and locks it in place, then repels down to the bottom. Jessie swims to Abigail and pulls her to the shore. Lester grabs Abigail and pulls her up as Jessie jumps on the ledge.

“Call 911 NOW!” Jessie screams. Lester pulls out his phone while Jessie starts performing CPR on Abigail, “Come on!” Jessie screams at Abigail. She breathes air into Abigail's lungs then starts compressions “Breath Abigail! Breath!” Jessie breaths more air into Abigail’s lungs. Her chest rises, then falls. “Damn it! Don’t die on me!” Jessie screams as tears roll down her face. Jessie does chest compressions again as Lester kneels down besides Abigail.

“Their on their way!” Lester says as a tear comes down his face. Jessie continues CPR for five minutes.

“Abigail! Breath!” Jessie says. “Come on!”

Lester looks at Abigail's lifeless body, “Jess, Jess, I think she’s gone.” Lester says seriously, “You’ve been trying now for ten minutes..” 

In a rage, Jessie gets up and pushes Lester to the ground. “No!” Jessie says angrily, “You don’t know her like I do! She’s a fighter! I already lost my mom, I’m not losing her!!” Jessie goes back to Abigail, kneels down and takes her fist and pounds it on Abigails chest. “Breath! Breath Abigail!” Jessie pounds on Abigails chest again, then one more time. All of the sudden Abigail’s eyes open and she gasps for air. She coughs up water and Jessie turns her over so she can puke. Abigail gasps for air, Jessie takes her in her arms and starts to cry, “You did it! It’s ok.” Jessie says happily as tears roll down her face. Lester gets on his knees, shocked by what just happened, as tears roll down his face. Jessie kisses Abigails forehead, “You’ll be ok Abigail, just keep breathing.”

Later on at the local hospital, Abigail is in an ICU room with wires hooked up to her. She has an oxygen mask on as she sleeps. Jessie is sitting in a chair facing her. She looks at the floor with tears in her eyes. Kira walks in with a bag and places it by the door. She walks over to Jessie and places a hand on her shoulders. Jessie looks up, gets up, hugs Kira and starts to cry.

“It’s ok, sweetie.” Kira says reassuring her, “She’s going to be fine. the doctors said there’s no brain damage, she just needs to rest.”

“I could’ve lost her Aunt Kira.” Jessie says wiping away tears, “I, I watched mom take her last breath, I wasn’t about to lose Abigail too.” 

That revelation shocks Kira as she looks at Jessie, “You remember this?” Kira says shocked. Jessie shakes her head yes. Kira hugs Jessie, “It’ll be ok Jess. I contacted her parents and they should be here in the morning. I brought you some clothes, you just stay with Abigail.” Kira kisses Jessie on the forehead and walks out of the ICU room. 

Lester is sitting in a chair visabully shaken by the events. He looks at Kira, “She was dead Ms. Kira.” Lester says, “Jessie worked on her for a while. We didn’t even know how long she was in the water. Jessie kept working on her, but there was nothing. I tried to get Jessie to stop because I thought Abbie was gone, but Jess flew into a rage, pushed me and told me no! She took her fist and pounded on Abbie’s chest three times. Then, it was like a miracle, Abbie came back. Jessie brought Abbie back to life Ms. Kira.” 

Kira puts her hand on his shoulder, “Come on Les.” Kira says, “Let's go back to the ranch, we’ll load up the bike and bring it here in case Jessie wants to come home.” Lester gets up and they leave. 

Inside the room, Jessie holds Abigails hand as she sleeps. Jessie puts her head down and suddenly feels a hand on her head. She looks up and sees that Abigail is awake and looking at her. 

Abigail takes her mask off and smiles at Jessie, “Thank you.” Abigail says. 

Jessie smiles as a tear rolls down her face. “It’s going to be ok." Jessie says as she pulls a bang away from Abigail's face, “You rest.” Abigail puts her mask back on and falls back asleep. Jessie leans back in the chair and closes her eyes. Abigail takes Jessie’s hand and squeezes it. Jessie soon falls asleep. As this happens, that glow of light that surrounded them before, appears again, glowing in their hands.

—————-

The next morning, Abigail is sitting up in her bed looking much better. The mask is off her and only a few wires are hooked up to her testing her vitails. Jessie walks in the room and they smile at each other. 

“How are you feeling!” Jessie says as she sits next to Abigail.

“Much better.” Abigail says as she takes Jessie’s hand, “Thank you, again.”

Jessie kisses her hand then looks at her and smiles. “Can you remember what happened?” Jessie asks. 

Abigail looks off into the distance, “I remember talking on the phone with my mom.” Shel says, “I was telling her that I wasn’t coming home for break. I started to lose signal on my phone, so I hung up. I turned around and there was this man standing in front of me.” 

“What man?” Jessie asks concerned.

“He was very handsome, built, dark hair, but he had an evil look to him. That’s all I remember.” Abigail says.

All of the sudden a teenage girl with brown hair flies onto the room causing Jessie to stand up, “Abbie!” the girl says as she hugs Abigail, who looks a little stunned, 

“Racheal, what are you doing here!” Abigail asks. Suddenly a man and woman in their 40’s walks in. The man is around 5’11 and has light brown hair, the woman stands around 5’7 with brown hair. “Mom? Dad?” Abigail says stunned, 

“Abigail! Thank God you’re ok!” Abigail's mom says as she hugs her. 

Abigail’s dad kisses her on the forehead and says. “We tried to get here as fast as we could. I almost got two speeding tickets driving through New Mexico.” 

“Abbie! What happened?” Racheal asks.

“Ok, everyone back off for a second!” Abigail says seriously. Her family stands back as she rubs her eyes, “I was working on a project for class and I must have slipped.” she says, “Thank God my friend Jessie rescued me.” Abigail looks at Jessie and smiles. 

Racheal goes and hugs Jessie “Thank you for saving my sister.” Racheal says, 

Jessie looks at her and smiles, “Your sister is my best friend, she means a lot to me.” Jessie says. 

Abigail’s mom shakes Jessie’s hand and says, “Thank you! You are a hero.” 

Abigail's dad stairs at Jessie in a cold way, looking at the athletic Jessie not knowing how to take her presence. He then back at Abigail, “I don’t understand.” he says, “Shouldn’t you have been with a group, or at least a professor.”

Abigail looks at him seriously and says, “I was doing this on my own for a project dad. We don’t do field trips in college.”. 

Her dad looks back at Jessie judgmentally, “How did you meet my daughter? Are you a classmate?” he says. 

Jessie gets a serious look on her face and says, “No, I’m just a friend and I don’t appreciate the interrogation right now.”

“Dad, leave her alone!” Abigail says seriously.

“Mark, what’s with you.” Abigail's mom says, “This young woman saved our daughters life, you should be thanking her.”

He looks at Abigail, “You look different.” he says.

“It’s called working out.” Abigail says. “I do have a life besides studying dad.” 

“You look great sis!” Racheal says trying to calm the mood. 

Abigail’s father looks at her sternly, “Your mother and I were talking and we decided that after this year is over, you come back home and go to a local college, the one thru our church.” her dad says, “They have Archaeology courses there.” 

“No!” Abigail yells, “My scholarships are thru here! I love it here!” 

“Honey, we just think a big place like Sedona is to much for you.” Abigail's mom says. 

Abigail looks at her mom angrily and says, “You don’t know what I want mom.”

“Don’t talk to your mother like that!” her dad says. 

Jessie notices Abigails blood pressure going up on the screen and walks over to Abigail's dad and says, “With all due respect sir, you’re daughter almost died, you are upsetting her.”

“And who the hell are you to tell me how I can talk to my daughter!” Abigail's dad says angrily, “Where did you meet my daughter, some frat party or something.”

“No!” Abigail says angrily, “You want to know how we met! She saved me from almost getting gang raped by three guys!” 

Racheal and their mom look at Abigail in shock by what she revealed. Abigail's dad looks at her in disgust and says, “Well, maybe if you didn’t put yourself in that situation, it wouldn’t have happened.” 

Abigail flies out of her bed at stairs down her dad in pure anger, “How dare you say that to me! Your own daughter! I am so done with you!” Abigail screams, “Mom, Racheal, get dad out of here and go back home right now before I blow!!” 

“Abigail..” her mom says, 

“Now mother!” Abigail says as she stairs down her mom. 

Racheal grabs her parents and takes them out of the room. Abigail looks on in anger as they leave, then all of the sudden, her heart rate monitor beeps very loud and fast and she passes out. Jessie catches her before she hits the floor. Jessie places her back in bed and runs to the door, “I need help!” Jessie yells. 

Two nurses run into the room and examine her. “Her blood pressure spiked.”, one nurse says, “She needs to rest.” 

Abigail starts comes to, “Abigail, I’m going to give you some meds to lower you BP and calm you down.”, the second nurse says. Abigail shakes her head yes.

“It’s going to be ok Abigail.” Jessie says.“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.” Abigail says with a tear running down her face. The nurse injects some meds into her IV and she soon falls asleep. Jessie walks out of the room and takes a deep breath.

“Jessie.” Jessie turns her head to see Racheal, “My parents are in the car, mom just wanted me to check on Abbie.”

“They had to sedate her.” Jessie says, “Her blood pressure spiked and she passed out.” 

Racheal looks to the ground with a tear in her eye and Jessie hugs her. “She’ll be ok Racheal.” Jessie says reassuring her. 

“I’m sorry about my dad.” Racheal says, “I don’t know what’s going on in his head right now, but please, take care of my sister for me.” 

Jessie smiles at Racheal, “Don’t worry Racheal, I will.” Jessie says, “I just hope your dad and Abigail can work this out.” 

Racheal smiles at Jessie, “I have to go.” Racheal says as she walks away. Jessie shakes her head and walks back into Abigail's room.

———-

A week and a half has past. Jessie and Lester are in the shed working on the bike. Jessie is kneeling down, checking the oil. She takes a rag and wipes some grime off the engine.

“Jess, I never got a chance to tell you that what you did, saving Abbie and all, that was amazing.” Lester says. 

Jessie wipes her hands on the rag. “Thanks Les.” Jessie says smiling, “I’d even save your sorry ass if it came down to it.” 

They both start laughing, “I wonder how Abbie’s doing.” Lester says, “She hasn’t been around for over a week.” 

“She had exams.” Jessie says, “She texted me a few times, she’s ok. Hand me that wrench, I’m gonna change the oil.” 

Lester goes to get a wrench and starts to hand it to Jessie. “Hi you two.”, says a voice. Jessie and Lester look up and sees Abigail. Her long hair is gone, cut into a shoulder length yet choppy style. Her bangs fall slightly to her side giving her an edgy look. She is wearing boots, tight, low-ride black jeans and an off the shoulder ribbed crop-top that shows off her tight six pack abs.

Lester in shock drops the wrench. “Abbie!” he says shocked, “Your, your hair. Your clothes!” 

Jessie and Lester walk around the bike and look Abigail up and down. “Les, go into town and get me that oil filter for the bike.” Jessie says staring at Abigail. 

He looks at Jessie then back at Abigail getting the hint to leave, “Ok.”, he says. He starts to leave, but stops at Abigail, “You look good Abbie.”, he says.

She looks at him, “Thanks Les.” she says smiling at him. Lester leaves the shed and Jessie and Abigail look at each other.

“Wow!” Jessie says, “You look, great.” 

“Thanks.” Abigail says smiling. “You like the haircut?” Jessie smiles, 

“I’m gonna have to get use to it, but yeah, I do!” Jessie says, “So, why did you do it?”

Abigail walks around, then stops in front of Jessie. “I don’t fully remember what happened on the ledge, but I do know that I was gone. I felt angry, cheated almost. Then I felt a warm presence tell me that I have to much to live for. That I needed to go back and fight. To be the person I was destined to be. When you brought me back, I knew there was a reason for me to stay alive, it was beachside of you.” Jessie’s then smiles at her tenderly.

“I did a lot of soul searching and decided I needed to change.” Abigail says, “I talked with Racheal, and a little bit to my mom. I told them that I’m going to live my life how I want too, not how my parents want me to.” 

“What did they say?” Jessie says.

“Racheal understands.” Abigail says smiling, “My mom, well, I think she does, but I don’t know.” 

“Have you talked to your dad?” Jessie says. 

“No!” Abigail says seriously, “He won’t talk to me and right now I don’t want to talk to him. I told my mom that if he can’t accept me for how I am now, we need to stay away from each other for a while.”

“I’m sorry.” Jessie says. 

“It’s not your fault Jessie.” Abigail says, “He is just to set in his ways. He’s never liked change. It turns him into a bitter person and I always hated that side of him. He’s just angry that I am not who he wants me to be. Do you get what I’m saying?” 

Jessie smiles at her and says, “Of course I do.”. 

“I’ll bring the laptop tomorrow and start scanning that map.” Abigail says. 

“Are you sure?” Jessie says concerned, “Don’t you think it’s a little to soon after what happened?” 

“I’m fine Jessie.” Abigail says smiling, “I need to do this, we need to do this. I’m not gonna let a little thing like death stop us.” 

Jessie and Abigail look at each other feeling that connection between each other, but it was now something more, as if their feelings for each other were changing. Suddenly they share a passionate hug. They hold each other with such tenderness as if two suddenly became one. They start to break from their hug when suddenly their lips are within inches of kissing. They stare into each other’s eyes, but are to afraid to give into their feelings.

Jessie suddenly breaks away and says, "I have to finish working on the bike."

As Jessie goes to fix the bike, Abigail sits on a chair with an angry look on her face. She wanted Jessie to kiss her, but she could also sense that Jessie seemed afraid, she had some fear lingering inside, but Abigail knew what she wanted, and it was Jessie. About fifteen minutes later, Jessie wipes her hands on a towel, looks at Abigail, and says, "I'm done. Let's go for a ride."

Thirty minutes later, they pull up to a mountain view with a bench to watch it. They get off the bike and sit on the bench, looking over the mountain at the beautiful view. 

Abigail looks at Jessie and says, "I'm changing my major next semester to film and literature."

"That's great!" Jessie says, smiling at Abigail. She then looks down at the ground and says, "Abigail, I don't know what would've happened if I lost you. You mean everything to me." 

Abigail smiles and says, "I am here because of you, Jessie, you saved my life. For that, I will always love you." 

Jessie looks at Abigail, smirks and says, "It's getting late, I better get you back to your dorm." 

They get on the bike, and as Jessie starts to rev the engine up when Abigail says, "Don't ever be afraid of my love for you, Jessie." 

Thirty minutes later, they pull up to Abigail's dorm house. The sun is just starting to set, and Jessie parks the bike so Abigail can get off. 

Abigail says to Jessie, "I'll see you tomorrow," and then she starts to walk to her dorm house when suddenly Jessie shouts, "Abigail, wait!!" 

Jessie gets off her bike and runs up to Abigail, stares deep into her eyes, and, all of a sudden, she pulls Abigail close to her, caresses her face, and then kisses her! And even though it is their very first kiss, somehow, it feels familiar, simple, and pure. When Jessie is finished, she hops back on the bike, starts it up, looks at Abigail, tenderly smiles but still with a look of fear in her eyes and drives off. Abigail first stands there in shock, but then she gets a huge smile on her face and walks into her dorm house.

Meanwhile at in his throne room, Ares walks over to a table and starts to pour some wine in a chalet, when all of the sudden Aphrodite appears. “You Son of a Bitch!”, she yells as a red ball forms in her hand. She throws it at Ares and he flies to the ground, "I warned you to stay away from them!” 

Ares stands up and looks at her coldly, "For the Goddess of Love, you're being a real bitch!" Ares says sarcastically, “What gives sis!”

“How dare you rip my heart out like that!” Aphrodites yells, “What you did to Abbie is unforgivable!”

“Hey, Jessie saved her!” Ares smirks as he walks around, “My question is, why are you so invested in these two?” 

“Who are you working with?!?” Aphrodite says as they both angrily stare at each other. 

“Leave them alone!” Aphrodite says, “Let it go!” Ares smirks at her but she looks at him seriously. “This is the last warning Ares!!”, she says, “The next time you will see a side of me you’d wish you’d never see!” Aphrodite disappears. 

Ares looks around smirking, “She’s bluffing.” he says.


	8. The Video, The Fight And Meeting Ares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abigail and Jessie discuss what happened up in the mountains, they watch a video that fuels Abigail’s new personality more. And an encounter changes both Jessie and Abigail causing them to rethink, but not back out of their journey to find the truth.

The next day, Jessie and Abigail are at the cabin, going through Janice’s journals. Abigail sets a journal down and looks around the cabin with a puzzled look on her face. Jessie notices and puts a journal down, “What’s wrong?” Jessie says concerned, “You’ve been off since we got here. 

Abigail gives a serious look, “I want to know what I saw the day of the accident.” she says, “It’s been bugging me since I woke up in the hospital.” 

Jessie looks at her seriously, “I need to tell you something.”, she says, “When I was in one of the caves, the same guy you described, showed himself in front of me.” Abigail gets a stunned look on her face. “We stared at each other it seemed like forever.” 

“Did he say anything?” Abigail says.

“It was weird.” Jessie says, “He didn’t move his lips, but it was like he spoke to me inside my head.”

Abigail gets a worried look in her eyes. “What did he say?” she said.

“He said to join him, and we could rule the world.” Jessie says.

Abigail gets a weird look on her face, “Wait! Where’s my GoPro!?!” Abigail says excited, “I had it strapped to my backpack by the entrance of the cave!” 

Jessie gets up and walks to the bedroom and brings out the backpacks. “Les went back up and grabbed them!” Jessie says as she hands Abigail her backpack. 

She opens it and takes the GoPro out of the backpack. “I’m gonna charge this!”, she says, “It was still going when everything happened.”

A couple hours later, The GoPro beeps that it’s fully charged. They look at it, “Are you sure you want to see this.” Jessie says concerned. 

Abigail looks at her seriously, “It’s my death.”, she says, “I want to see it!”. Abigail grabs the GoPro and hooks it to her laptop and opens the App. The screen pops up and it shows when they started hiking up the mountain. Abigail fasts forwards to when Les went into the cave and when she was talking to her mom. As she loses a signal, Ares appears out of nowhere.

“What the hell!” Jessie says staring at the screen in shock. They look on as Abigail turns around and faces Ares, her eyes gets wide as they stare each other down. She goes to swing at him, but he blocks her punch, he then levitates her and she flies into his hand as he grabs her by the throat. She tries to swing at him, but he sends her flying over the cliff and into the water. Abigail looks at the screen with a tear running down her face while Jessie gets an angry look on her face. 

They continue to watch as Ares walks over to the edge, looks down and turns around. He looks around with anger in his eyes and says, “That was easy.” he says as he looks back over the ledge, “She would be so disappointed in you.” He turns back around and disappears. Abigail stairs at the screen in shock. 

Jessie holds Abigail’s hand and says, “You’re ok.” Jessie says, “Who or what that is, I’m not going to let him hurt you ever again.”

Jessie goes to close the app out, but Abigail grabs her hand, “I want to see it all!”, she says.

Jessie looks at her concerned and says, “Abigail, I really don’t think you should.”

Abigail looks at her seriously, “I want to see it! All of it!” she says as she presses play. Jessie and Abigail continue to watch the video as they get to the point where Jessie and Lester walks out of the cave and starts to search for Abigail. They both watch on as Jessie looks over the cliff in horror screams no and jumps over the ledge while Lester repels down the cliff. While you can’t see what’s going on, the audio is clear and loud. Abigail watches the video with a serious look on her face as she hears Jessie's pleas for Abigail to breath and as she’s performing CPR on her. As a tear falls down her face, Jessie holds Abigails hand as they hear Jessie screaming at Lester then pounding on Abigails chest. All of the sudden a light shines down from the sky at the scene and a yellow ball of light flys down. 

Tears flow down Abigails face as she hears her own gasps for air and Jessie reassuring her. Abigail stops the video and gets up, she walks around for a bit then sits on a chair and puts her hands over her eyes. Jessie gets up and puts her hand on Abigails shoulder. “I died!” Abigail says, “He left me for dead!” 

“You’re here Abigail.”, Jessie says, “You fought back, and you’re here now.” 

Abigail gets up and hugs Jessie, “Thanks to you!” Abigail says seriously. Abigail gets an angry look on her face as she goes back and rewinds the clip back a to show a clear image of Ares. They both stare at the paused image. All of the sudden, they both have the same vision of Xena and Gaabrielle’s relationship with Ares. They snap out of the vision. “We need to go back up to the mountains!” Abigail says seriously, “I want to confront that bastard!”

The next day, Jessie and Abigail are a half a mile from the base of the mountain with Blaze. They get off Blaze and unhook their backpacks from the side of her. “Are you sure you want to do this Abigail?” Jessie says, 

“Yes!” Abigail says, “Whatever is up there, we need to confront it. Abigail takes out her GoPro, straps it to her backpack. She takes out her phone and programs her phone to turn it on. She reaches into her backpack and pulls out the folded fighting staff. 

Jessie looks at it. “Why did you bring that?” she says curiously. 

“I did some research.” Abigail says seriously, “This staff belonged to an Amazon warrior. Something told me to take it along. If we come along who ever is up there, I want to be prepared.” 

Jessie smiles at her, “Ok then, let's do it.” she says as Abigail unfolds the staff.

They start walking up the trail, they soon walk around some bushes. Jessie suddenly stops Abigail and senses something

“What’s wrong?” Abigail says. 

Jessie looks around and whispers to Abigail, “We’re being watched.” Jessie says, “I can sense it.” They look around and set their backpacks down. As they do, three guys slowly walk out of the bushes and start to grab them, but all of the sudden Jessie and Abigail flip two of the guys over. Abigail takes the staff and bashes the third guy in the stomach, flying him back a little. One guy gets up and goes to swing at Jessie, but she grabs his arm and swing kicks him in the stomach, landing him on the ground. The second guy goes for Abigail, but she bashes him in the face with her staff. She takes his arm and flips him around, landing him on the ground. 

The third guy swings at Jessie, but she ducks, “Didn’t your parents ever tell you it's not nice to hit ladies,” Jessie says as she right hooks the third guy in the eye. He falls to the ground then gets back up and runs away. The two remaining guys try to take on Jessie and Abigail, but with every throw, Jessie and Abigail block. Abigail takes the staff, stands it on the ground then twirls around the staff, kicking the second guy in the face, knocking him down to the ground. She grabs the staff and puts it on his throat to make sure he doesn’t get up.

Jessie ducks a punch from the first guy and grabs his arm and flips him to the ground. Suddenly her eyes get really wide as she jumps on the guy, taking her index and middle finger of her right hand and shoves them hard into the right side of the guys neck, causing him to become paralyzed. As he starts gasping for air she gets up at stairs at him and says. “I have cut off the flow of blood to your brain, if you don’t tell us in thirty seconds why you and your buddies are following us, I will let you die. Now who sent you!” 

“An older guy.” the guys says gasping for air.

“Who!” Abigail says angrily. 

“I don’t know, he paid us to confront the both of you.” the guy says as blood trickles down his nose.

“You have fifteen seconds to come up with a name! NOW” Jessie screams, 

“A, Ares!” the guy says frightened, “The guys name was Ares!” 

Jessie reaches down and does the move again, releasing the grip, “You two get the hell out of here!” Jessie says as the guys get up, “Tell this Ares that if he wants us, come and get us himself! Now go!”The two guys run off frightened by what just happened. 

Though a little out of breath, Jessie and Abigail calm down from what just happened, “What the hell happened?” Jessie says. 

“I don’t know? But all the sudden we both turned into someone different and kicked those guys ass.” Abigail says as she looks at Jessie puzzled, “Where the hell did you learn that move with the neck?!? That was awesome!” 

Jessie looks at Abigail weirdly, “I have no idea.” Jessie says stunned, “But I felt like I’ve known that move my whole life.”

All of the sudden Ares appears sitting on a rock. He claps his hands and smiles at Jessie and Abigail, “Bravo ladies, bravo!” Ares says with an evil smirk on his face. He goes to get up, but Abigail takes the staff and bashes him in the chest, then takes it and trips him to the ground, 

“You son of a bitch!” she screams. Jessie jumps on him and punches him in the mouth. 

Ares flings Jessie to the ground and gets up, rubbing his jaw. “Wow! I never thought I would run into a memory of the past!” Ares says. 

“You are the one who left me for dead!” Abigail says angrily as Jessie gets up and stands next to her, “I should kill you right now!” 

Ares laughs at her, “Sorry sweetie, you can’t kill the God of War.” Ares says as Jessie and Abigail stair at him in shock, “I’m Ares, God of War” 

“I thought all those Gods and Goddesses were mythical,” Abigail says confused. 

Ares looks at her sarcastically, “What you’ve been taught your whole life isn’t really true.” Ares says, “There are a select few of us still out there. I’ve just been waiting for the right time to introduce myself.”

“Why? What do you want with us.” Jessie says seriously. 

Ares walks up to Jessie and gently strokes her face. “When I look at you, I see a woman from the past that was so great, she was once feared by nations.” he says then looks at Abigail, “When I see you, I see the shining light that saved her soul.” 

“What do you mean?” Jessie says. 

Ares starts walks around and says, “I haven’t figured it out yet, but I will tell you both that three people you know are holding something back.”

“Did you kill Mel and Janice!” Abigail says seriously, “They were too experienced to die from a simple fall!” 

“No!” Ares says seriously, “That was not me! Though when that bitch Janice trapped me in that cave back in the 40’s, I wanted to snap her neck! But no, the person that killed your relatives has been lurking around for quite some time.”

“Why!” Jessie says. 

Ares smiles at her and says, “You two just keep on your little quest. In the meantime, I will be waiting.” Ares comes face to face with Jessie, “And when the time comes, you will join me. I can feel the rage in you Jessie, and it excites me.” He strokes her face again then disappears.  
__


	9. Quest To The Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessie and Abigail discover a suitcase that belonged to Mel and it’s contents. They learn about an entity other than Ares that is looking for the Chakram. A dream reveals to them what really happened to Mel and Janace and they discover who they are descended from. A tear jerker of a chapter!

At the cabin, Jessie and Abigail sit with puzzled looks on their faces. “Ok, first we easily fight off three guys and then a mythical God shows up and basically says he knew us from the past.” Abigail says, “I don’t think I know him, but he seems familiar in a way.” 

“He reminds me of someone.” Jessie says as she gets up and walks around, “And he said he didn’t kill Janace and Mel, which for some reason, I do believe him.” 

“Do you think someone else killed them?” The person who Ares mentioned.” Abigail says. 

“Yeah, I do.” Jessie says, “The thing is, who or what was it.” Suddenly the closet door flies open and an old suitcase falls off the top shelf. Surprised, Jessie and Abigail turns around and looks at it. They walk over to the suitcase, 

“What the hell!” Abigail says stunned. 

Jessie picks up the suitcase and sets it on the coffee table. “This is weird.” she says as Abigail walks over. Jessie tries to open it but their is two small locks on the ends. Abigail goes into her backpack and brings out a tool kit for eyeglasses, she gets out a small tool and puts it in the hole of one lock. She wiggles it around and the latch pops open, she does the same to the other one. Jessie opens the suitcase and discovers a old leather bound journal, a scroll and some old pictures of Mel and Janace.

“Wow!” Abigail says as they look at the pictures. “They were so beautiful.” 

“It looks like this was taken here on the ranch.” Jessie says as she turns a picture around and sees a date, November 1955. She looks at another picture of them and sees that a young guy around sixteen is standing with them. She turns it around and notices the name, “The young guy in here, that’s my grandpa.” Jessie says as they stare at the picture.

“Your grandpa knew them!” Abigail says. “Do you think your aunt knows about this?”

“I don’t know.”, Jessie says, “She’s in Phoenix right now.”

Abigail grabs the journal and opens the cover to see Melinda Pappas written on it and the sentence: Entries of Xena and Gabrielle, “Oh my god! It’s Mel’s Journal!” Abigail says excited, “This must be her suitcase!” Abigail opens the journal and reads an entry.

July 1953

After years of roaming Europe and only getting dead ends, Janice and I have finally found Xena’s Yin/Yang Chakram. After getting some information from an elderly woman outside of Athens, we were told to go to a site where the town of Poteia use to be. This was the home of Gabrielle, Xena’s fighting companion and soulmate. The old woman also told us that if we find it, we have to guard it with our lives. For there is an evil entity that is out there trying to get it’s hands on the Chakram for centuries. When I questioned the old woman about who this entity may be, all she said was that it has been morphing into different souls and killing anyone who is related to Xena and Gabrielle that might know it’s whereabouts. Thinking that it might be Ares, we asked the woman if she knew the name of this entity. The name she came up with was Alti.

Jessie and Abigail look at each other in shock, “Who is this Alti? Jessie says, “And what does it want with the Chakram?” They continue reading the entry:

When we entered the site of where Potidaea once stood, we went to the cave that the old woman said it might be located. We started to dig around some of the walls. I found a scroll buried in a crevasse. Then Janice came across another crevasse which contained a two swords and a pair of Sais wrapped in an old sack. She determined that one sword belonged to Xena and the Sais and other sword were used by Gabrielle. After ten minutes, we came across a small door with a handprint on it. Janice looked at me and said that since I have the magic touch, I had to open it. Like back in Macedonia, I placed my hand on the palm print and lo and behold, the door started to open. We watched as the stone slid open and there it was, the Yin/Yang Chakram. It was connected together and boy, was it beautiful. We both stared in awe. Suddenly, we got a bad feel in our souls. Janice grabs the weapons and I grabbed the scroll and Chakram and we hightailed it out of there. We decided to go back to the States and figure out what to do next. If this Alti is tracking us, we need to hide the Chakram.

Jessie and Abigail look at each other in shock and awe, “Let’s read more of this.” Jessie says, “Mel seems to go into more in her journal. 

Abigail takes the journal and goes farther into the journal. “Look at this Jessie!”, she says

October 1955

We have traveled to Sedona, Arizona where my cousin RJ and his family lives. His daddy Frank was my uncle, and they lived out here for years. Even though he is only sixteen, RJ’s son Mitch is very in tune with the mountains around here. He took Janice and I up in the Red Rocks and we explored some caves. After Janace and I discussed this, we decided that we need to hide the Chakram and the weapons in one of the caves. I did some research on this entity named Alti, she was an Amazon Shamaness who was drummed out by the tribes because she wanted to use the warriors for evil to conquer the known world at the time. She soon met a young Xena and through her teachings, she lured Xena into the path of darkness, making her the Destroyer of Nations. I can only describe Alti as pure evil. No mortal is her equal. Later known as The Dark Shamaness, she had boundless ambition for personal power that was intertwined with an aggressive and almost sensual desire to cause pain and sorrow. She is bright enough to make subtle plans to reach her goals, and there are very few people who are even remotely in the same league when it comes to spiritual powers. Her demeanour changes with the situation, seductively persuasive when needed, yet scathingly taunting and violent. Years later she was killed by Xena and Gabrielle with the help of a mystic guide named Naima. My only guess is that there are powers contained in this Chakram, and Alti wants it, for what, we do not know. We also decided that in case something happens to us, to tell Mitch why we are doing this. For a young man, he was captivated by everything we told him. He made a promise to us that he would keep these artifacts hidden if anything happened to us.

Jessie and Abigail look at each other, shocked, “My grandpa knew all about this!” Jessie says. 

“Did your grandpa ever mention anything to you?” Abigail says stunned. 

“No, he died before I was born. I never knew him.” Jessie says stunned. 

Abigail then sets the journal down. “Wow!”, Abigail says. “This is getting serious Jessie!” 

“We are going to stay here tonight.” Jessie says, “I don’t want us to be alone, just in case Ares decides to show up.”

Later on that night, Abigail is sleeping on the couch, while Jessie has blankets on the floor and is fast asleep. They both suddenly have a vision of the mountains and caves where they were at. All of the sudden Mel and Janice run out of the cave, gasping for air. Janice is in her trademark khaki pants, boots, leather jacket and khaki shirt and her hair is pulled back. Mel is also in khaki pants, boots and a button up denim shirt with two top buttons left unbuttoned. Her long raven hair is in a ponytail.

“What the hell was that!” Janice says in a panic. She soon discovers her trademark hat is missing. “My hat!”, she says angrily.

“Janace, we can always get you a new hat!” Mel says seriously, “We need to get out of here! Alti has found us!” 

They run around to the back of the cave where their rope is hooked to a rock. “We’ll go back to the cabin, grab our things and go!” Mel says, “It’s secure, she can’t find it.” Mel says. Janice and Mel start to walk to the edge of the cliff when all of the sudden Alti appears in front of them. Dressed in her Amazon Shameless suit and hat, she looks upon Mel and Janice with pure evil in her eyes. Mel and Janice run back over to the cave, but Alti appears again.

“Where is it!” Alti says in an evil voice. “Where is the Chakram!”

Janace looks at the entity with hatred in her eyes. “You will never know where it is Alti!” Janace says. She pulls a gun from her holster and aims it at Alti, but with one flick of the hand, Alti makes the gun fly over the cliff. 

“You fool! Your weapons do not phase me!” Alti says, “Now where is the Chakram!” 

“You will never get it out of us!” Mel says.

Alti walks over to Mel and stairs at her. “I have been tracking that Chakram for centuries!” Alti says, “I know it’s close.”

“It’s not here!” Mel says. All of the sudden, Mel curls a fist and right hooks Alti, who, lands to the ground in shock. She quickly gets back up and through her magic, throws Janice to the side of the cave, landing her on the ground. Alti puts out her arm and Mel rises up and flies into Alti’s hand. Alti starts to choke Mel. 

“You thought Ares was evil, I am just as evil if not more!” Alti says in a rage, “I know who you and your friend are! Now if you don’t tell me where it is, I will snap your neck!” All of the sudden a whip appears around Alti’s feet and Janice, who is welding it, trips her. Mel lands to the ground gasping for air. 

"Run Mel!" Janice yells seriously, "Save yourself! I got this!" 

Mel gets up and starts to run, but Alti breaks free from Janice’s grip, sending her into the wall of the cave. She appears in front of Mel who stops in her tracks and levitates her. Mel looks at Janice with tears rolling down her eyes and all the sudden Alti sends Mel over the cliff, Mel lands on a ledge, motionless. Janice gets up and runs to the cliff and looks down at Mels lifeless body, 

“NO!” Janace screams in horror. She then turns around and takes out a long hunting knife from her other holster. With rage in her eyes she screams, “You Fucking Bitch!” as she runs towards Alti. 

A few minutes later Alti stands at the edge of the cliff and looks down at Mel and Janace’s lifeless bodies. She gets an evil grin on her face. “You tried Covington.” Alti says, “You two are nothing like them.” Alti looks off in the distance with an evil look on her face. “I guess I have to wait for another generation.” Alti vanishes into thin air. On the cliff, Janace slightly opens her eyes with a tear running down her face. She looks at Mels lifeless body, and as she takes her last breath, she grabs Mel’s hand.

All of the sudden Jessie and Abigail are jolted from their vision. Gasping for air with tears running down their face, they get up and face each other. “Did you just..” Abigail says shocked. 

“Yeah.” Jessie says trying to calm down. “We just seen Mel and Janace’s murder!” she says as they both sit down in shock. A few minutes later, after they have calmed down a little, Jessie and Abigail look at each other. “I can’t believe it!” Jessie says rubbing her eyes. 

“It’s like they wanted us to know!” Abigail says still stunned. “This Alti, she killed them.” Jessie stairs at Mel’s journal.

“They sacrificed themselves for some family secret.” Jessie says. She gets up, grabs the journal and sits next to Abigail. “Lets see when her last entry is. Maybe she wrote some info on what it is.”Jessie and Abigail open the journal and quickly turns it to the last know entry of Mel:

June 15, 1956

Janace and I sit here in this cabin knowing this might be the last entry I make in this journal. We fear Alti has found us and it’s just a matter of time. With that, we decided that in this entry, we should tell our future descendants why we came together, and why we may go out together. But first, let me state that the scroll to the Yin/Yang Chakram has not been deciphered yet. We hope that the right descendants of ours will find it and the Chakram. For when you do, your lives will forever be changed. Embrace who you truly are.

In 1940, after finding an old telegram addressed to my daddy from a Janice  
Covington, I decided to track her down. She was requesting my daddy’s assistance on reading some old scrolls. Since daddy taught me how to read ancient scrolls before he died, I felt compelled to help this woman. So I traveled to Macedonia to see if I could be of some help. Boy was I in for the shock of my life. Three men almost killed me for my briefcase, but then out of nowhere, Janice came to my rescue and was able to scare the men off. After a rocky introduction, we met a French official by the name of Lt. Jocter, there to help us locate the Xena Scrolls.

After being approached by a Mr. Smyth, who had an ancient tablet with the code to get into the tomb, I was able to decipher it. Not long Mr. Smyth and his men held us at gunpoint and we entered it. We were suddenly separated by a sliding stairs. As Janice, Lt. Jocter and I started to explore parts of the cave, and through my uncanny way of stumbling on to things we discovered the Xena Scrolls. I also discovered half of Xena’s first Chakram. I pulled it out of the rock that it was embedded into and suddenly Janace, Lt. Jocter and I was led to Mr. Smyth and his men. Mr. Smyth had the other part of the Chakram. After a brief argument, I was pulled to the other half of the Chakram and was knocked out.

I do not remember the events that happened, but according to Janice, Ares awoke from his casket and killed Mr. Smyth and his men. Then, what was revealed took me a while to come to terms with, but I am proud of it, just like Janice is. I won’t go into massive details because I don’t know how much time we have, but at the time, Ares could only be released into the new world from a descendent of Xena. It was revealed that Lt. Jocter was actually Jack Kleinman, a brush salesman from New Jersey. Ares also revealed that he is a descendant of Joxer, Xena and Gabrielle’s idiot friend and sidekick. Ares looked at Janice and revealed to her that she is the descendant of Gabrielle, Battling Bard of Potidaea, Amazon Queen, Xena’s Prodigy and soulmate. And so that left me, Melinda Pappas. I am the descendant of Xena: Warrior Princess.

And with that revelation, Jessie and Abigail suddenly gets up, drops the journal, and stairs at it in pure shock.


	10. Revelations Pt. 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessie remembers who kill her mother and is reunited with her sisters. Jessie and Abigail reveal all they’ve learned and Jessie tells her sisters about the day their mother died.

Jessie and Abigail stare at the journal in pure shock by what Mel revealed. They sit back down and stare at each other, 

“Uhm, I can’t believe what we just read.”Jessie says stunned. 

Abigail sits there in complete shock. “I, I really don’t know what to say.”she says as she picks up the journal. “Wow! Just wow!” Abigail looks at Jessie,

“So I am a descendent from Xena.” Jessie says, “And you’re a descendant from Gabrielle.”

“It looks that way.” Abigail says as she gets up and walks around. “This might explain all the visions we’ve been having Jessie. What if Xena and Gabrielle, and then Mel and Janace are trying to tell us something about the Chakram?”

“It still doesn’t explain why I feel like I’ve known Dr. Henry before, Why Ares looks so damn familiar and why I know that move with the neck.” Jessie say. 

“Or how my personality changed, the fighting staff calls to me and how my fighting skills multiplied?” Abigail says as she walks to the suitcase and picks up the scroll. She walks over to her backpack and pulls out her laptop and wireless mouse. She turns it on and gets no WiFi. “Crap! We’re going to have to wait till morning.” she says. “Do you think your aunt knows about this Jess.” 

“I have no clue.” Jessie says, “All I know is, we need to solve this fast.”

Later that day, Jessie goes over Mels journal yet again, going back over some of the entries. Abigail walks into the cabin. "Still going over her journal?" Abigail says. 

"Yeah, something is bugging me.", Jessie says. She looks of into the distance, "I'm trying to figure out this Alti entity." She gets up and walks over to the fireplace mantle and stairs at the picture of Zara. She goes over in her head what Mel wrote about Alti’s personality. 

Abigail looks at her strangely, “Jessie, are you ok?” she says. 

Jessie starts to breath in a panic as visions of Dr. Smith pops into her head, then a vision of Ares. Visions of Andrea comes to her, then a vision of Alti. Suddenly Jessie sees the vision of Zara’s murder and she remembers seeing Alti’s face. 

“Jessie!! What’s wrong?!?” Abigail says seriously as she gets up, “Do you remember something?!?” 

Jessie grabs her phone from her jean pocket and dials Sydney. On the other line, Sydney picks up her phone “Hey sis!” Sydney says, “What’s up!” 

“I need you and Beth to hop on the first flight down here right now!” Jessie says in a panic. 

“Jess! What’s wrong?” Sydney says concerned, “Aunt Kira ok!”

“She’s fine! I just need you and Beth to get down here now!” Jessie says, “I remember mom’s murder and I know who killed her!”

“What??” Sydney says panicked, “Who?”

“You two just get down here please!” Jessie says, “Dad’s still overseas right!”

“Yeah! Jess, you’re scaring me!” Sydney says. “What’s going on!”

“You two need to get down here!” Jessie says, “And whatever you do, don’t let Andrea know!” 

“Why?” Sydney says confused.

“Just get down here and I will explain everything!” Jessie says, “Your lives may be in danger!” Sydney and Jessie hang up, Jessie looks at Abigail with a scared look on her face. “This whole time!” Jessie says “All this time!” 

“Jessie, what’s wrong!” Abigail says worried. 

Jessie looks at the journal, “Mels description of Alti!” Jessie says breathing heavily. 

Abigail picks up Mels journal and reads the entry, puts two and two together and gets this shocked look on her face. “Alti killed your mom!” Abigail says. “And she’s...” 

“She’s been posing as my step-mother this whole time.” Jessie says as an angry look comes across her face. She takes her phone and sends a text to Kira. “I just text my Aunt. Lets take all the journals, the scroll, your laptop and go back to the main house. We’re ending this”

Kira walks into the cafe and sits at the counter. Di walks out of the kitchen, sees her and sits a cup of coffee down. “Hi Kira, how’ve you been?” Di asks. 

Kira looks at her seriously and says,. “They are figuring out the truth.“How am I going to explain it to them?” 

Di looks at her smiles and says, “You are just going to tell the truth Kira.”, 

“But how!” Kira says upset, “Jessie is like a daughter to me. I’ve been protecting her, her whole life. And now that the truth is going to come out. She’s going to hate me!” 

“No Kira!” Di says, “She’s not going to hate you. Confused, yes. But she will never hate you.”

“And what about Abigail?” Kira says, “How am I going to tell her the truth?!?” 

Di grabs Kira’s hand, “Don’t worry about that.” Di says, “I will be there to help you with Abigail. I know my Little One!” Kira smiles at her.

“I made a promise to my sister that I’d protect her girls, Jessie especially.”says Kira, “I just hope when it all comes out, everyone will understand this all.” Kira’s phone buzzes, she looks at it and gets a worried look. “It’s Jessie! She remembers who killed Zara! Beth and Sydney are on a flight here!” Kira looks at Di shocked.

“First things first.” Di says, “You go take care of that, when the time comes, I’ll know! Now go!” Kira rushes out of the diner.

Later that afternoon a car pulls up to the ranch and Beth and Sydney get out of the car. Lester notices and walks over to them. “Hey there ladies!” Lester says, “What can I do ya for!” 

“We’re here to see our sister Jessie!” Beth says seriously, “Is she here?” 

Jessie walks out of the main house, “Good! You made it!” Jessie says as she hugs them, “Come on, Abigail and I will explain everything!” All three girls walk into the house. Lester stands there with a puzzled look, “There’s more of them?” he says as he gets a smile on his face.

The three sisters walk into the living room. Abigail, who is sitting in a chair, stands and faces them, 

“First off, Sydney, Beth, this is Abigail.” Jessie says,

“Finally glad to meet you.” Abigail says, “I wish it was under better circumstances.” 

“Same here.” Sydney says as she cocks her head as if she knew her from somewhere. Kira rushes into the house and looks at everyone, 

“I got here as fast as I could!” she says as she hugs Beth and Sydney. She walks over to Jessie “Jess, what happened? What do you remember?” 

Jessie looks at them seriously, “I want all of you to hear us out. What we are going to tell you, you need to listen to everything.” Jessie says. 

“We will Jess.” Beth says concerned, “What do you remember?” 

Jessie and Abigail look at them seriously and Jessie says, “What we’re going to tell you, you might not believe, but all of it is the truth! You better sit down” Beth and Sydney sits on the couch while Kira sits in a chair

————————

Jessie and Abigail are explaining everything to Beth and Sydney, who have skeptical looks on their faces, while Kira has a serious look on hers. They explain their visions, their dreams, their advanced fighting skills, their whole personality change. They explain Janice and Mel’s connection and their connection to Xena and Gabrielle. They explain how Mel and Janice found the Yin/Yang Chakram and some background on it. Jessie tells them how Mel and Janice told their grandfather everything they knew about the Chakram and how he kept the secret, and how he may have told their mother about it. Beth and Sydney still look on confused while Kira gets a conflicted look on her face. They also tell them about Alti and Ares.

“Jess, Abigail, this doesn’t make any sense to me?” Beth says confused, “I get that our distant cousin and your great-great aunt worked together and discovered these scrolls. And that this Xena is related to us, while Gabrielle is related to you Abigail, but how is Andrea and Dr. Smith involved in this?” 

“Yeah. I mean, Andrea is a bitch.” Sydney says, “But I can’t picture her as this entity Alti.” 

Jessie hands Beth the entry where Mel explains Alti’s personality, Beth and Sydney reads it. “Ok, but I just don’t get it.” Sydney says, “And what about Dr. Smith?” 

“He’s really Ares, God of War.” Abigail says. Both Beth and Sydney look at them so confused. Jessie looks at Abigail, “Show then the video where Ares killed you.” Jessie says seriously. 

“Wait!?! What?” Beth says shocked and confused.

“I never told you two, but last month, Ares attacked Abigail.” Jessie says, “She died, but somehow, I brought her back to life.” 

“It’s the truth.” Kira says.

Sydney and Beth look at Kira shocked. Abigail loads up her GoPro and Sydney, Beth and Kira start watching the video in shock. “Oh my God!” Sydney says shocked, “That’s Dr. Smith!” They watch as Ares raises Abigail up in the air and catches her by her throat, sending her over the cliff. Then they watch as Jessie and Lester discovers Abigails body in the pond. 

They watch as Jessie jumps into the pond and hears Jessie doing CPR and screaming to Abigail to breath. Both Beth and Sydney get tears in their eyes as they see a yellow light shine down as a ball of light flies down and then they hear Abigail gasping for breath. 

Both Beth and Sydney sit there with stunned looks on their faces while Kira has a stoic look on her face. Abigail stops the video and Jessie kneels in front of her sisters.“Dad would’ve never remarried six months after mom died.” Jessie says seriously, “Beth, you’re the oldest, you remember her more. Mom was the love of dad's life. You know this. Even though we were kids, we all knew this.” 

Beth and Sydney look at each other in shock. “She may have a spell or something on dad, it might explain why he’s always oblivious to everything. I don’t know what Ares thing is in all this, but Alti, she’s been posing as Andrea this whole time to get her hands on the Chakram” Jessie says. “ Her features may have changed a bit, but she has fooled us this whole time.”

Beth stands up and walks to the mantle and looks at the picture of Zara, tears start to roll down her face, “I want to believe this, but..” Beth says unsure of what Jessie and Abigail has said. 

Jessie stands up and walks over to her. “Beth, I realize Sydney and you blocked mom’s murder out, I get it.” Jessie says, “And for a while, so did I. But the dreams I’ve been having, they are memories. I remember hearing a loud bang upstairs and mom telling us to go to the closet. I remember seeing mom and Alti coming back into the living room and mom being held at gunpoint by Alti.” 

Jessie then looks over at Sydney, “I remember you trying to get out of the closet and Beth pulling you back!” Jessie says then looks back at Beth, “I remember the both of you hiding in the back of the closet as Alti and mom started to argue. I remember Alti threatening to kill one of us if mom didn’t tell her where the Chakram was. I remember seeing them fight, how mom got the gun away from Alti. I remember seeing Alti take out a knife and stabbing mom in the stomach” 

Tears roll down Sydney’s face as memories suddenly start to come back to her. Kira puts a hand on Sydney’s shoulder. “I remember Alti pulling the knife out of mom’s stomach and disappearing. I then remember walking out of the closet, walking over to mom and looking down at her.” 

Jessie’s rage starts to build up as she curls a fist and an angry look comes across her face. Abigail walks over and touches Jessie’s shoulder. Jessie takes a huge breath, calms down and says. “Mom looked at me, and with her last breath she told me to find the Chakram and to avenge her death. Beth, you pulled me back into the closet. After that, I must have passed out, because the next thing I remember was dad having us up in your room and police cars parked outside.”

With an angry look on her face, Sydney stands up and says , “I’m going back home and I’m killing her!”

Jessie looks at Sydney seriously and says, “No! You both are staying right here! I don’t need you going back and getting yourself killed. She is very, very dangerous! Once she figures out that you two are gone, she’s going to be here.” 

Jessie then looks at everyone and says , “I don’t know if you all believe me or not, but Abigail and I have to protect all of you. For some reason we were brought together, if through either Xena and Gabrielle, Mel or Janace or even mom.”

“Alti also killed Mel and Janace.” Abigail says, “The murder came to us in a dream last night. She may have even killed your grandfather.” 

Kira looks at Abigail and Jessie in shock. “How!” Kira says, “He had a heart attack!” 

“Alti has been tracking down descendants of Xena and Gabrielle who knew about the Chakram for centuries and killing them if they didn’t tell her.” Abigail says, “If your father knew about the Chakram, she may have located him and because he swore to Mel and Janace to keep everything a secret, she may have triggered the heart attack and then moved onto your sister.”

“This Chakram, what ever powers it holds, Abigail and I were brought together to find it.” Jessie says, “And I really don’t know why it’s Abigail and I. What I do know, is that we have to stop Alti, before she kills anyone else.” 

Sydney walks up to Jessie and hugs her and says holding back tears, “Jess, I am so sorry you had to carry this memory your whole life. I believe you.” She looks at Jessie and smiles a bit, “Somehow, I believe you.” 

They look at Beth, who has a confused look on her face. “I, I need to think about all this.” Beth says shell shocked. 

Jessie smiles at her, “Go with what your heart Beth.” Jessie says, “It will show you the truth.” Jessie then looks at Kira and says , “Abigail and I will stay down here in the living room. One of you can stay in my room”.

“I’ll set up the other guest room.” Kira says, “I’ll also load my gun just in case she shows up.” 

“I don’t know if that will work, but have it ready.” Abigail says. “I will go explain a bit to Les as to what’s going on and ask him to stand guard outside the stables the first four hours of the night. I’ll take the other four.” 

“I’ll do the rest.” Jessie says. “I want you awake to scan and read that scroll.” 

Jessie looks at Kira and says, “I also want to ask you in the morning a couple questions. I want to know how much info mom and grandpa knew about. If you don’t mind.”

Kira looks at her seriously, “Of course Jessie.” Kira says, “Right now we all need to rest and think about what just happened.” 

Jessie looks at everyone, “Whatever happens next, I need everyone here to stand with Abigail and I.” Jessie said, “Alti has been killing our families for generations.” 

“No amount of today's laws, rules or even how the world is today will stop her.” Abigail says seriously, “It’s going to end with Jessie and I. We just need all of you to believe us.” 

Sydney smiles and says , “I believe you.”

“Same here.” Kira says, “Whatever you two need, you got it.” 

They all look at Beth. She takes a big breath and looks at Jessie, “Count me in.” she says as she grabs Jessie’s hand, “Prove me wrong sis.” 

Jessie looks at her and smiles, “It’s not a matter of who’s right or wrong.” Jessie says, “This is about family.”


	11. Revelations Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kira and Aphrodite reveal the truth to a shocked Jessie and Abigail, Ares tells Andrea the truth, which makes her true self come out. Ares shows Jessie a part of her past life she doesn’t want to see. Jessie explodes at Abigail and forces of good pull together to put Jessie and Abigail back together before Ares does serious damage. (This is one hell of a tearjerker of a chapter!!)

The next morning Abigail, Lester, Beth and Sydney are camped out in the living room. Lester is sitting in between Sydney and Beth, while Abigail has the coffee table pulled up to her chair and she is booting up her laptop.

“I seen your sister bring Abbie back to life.” Lester says, “It was a miracle. You two are lucky to have her as your sister.” 

“We know this.” Sydney says. “She is an amazing woman. We are honored to have her as our sister”

Beth gets up and walks around, “I can’t believe this whole time our mom’s murderer was right under our nose.” Beth says seriously, “And it never dawned on us.” 

“We were just kids Beth.” Sydney says, “We couldn’t have known.” 

“But now!” Beth says angrily, “Jessie was the only one who never listened to her lies.” 

“Alti has a way of using mind control on people.” Abigail says, “Somehow Jessie may have been able to tune Alti’s control out.”

Jessie walks into the living room, “Everything is secure.” she says. “Now it’s just a matter of time.” 

Beth looks at Jessie. “Jess, I thought about everything last night.” Beth says as she hugs Jessie. “I’m so sorry you had to deal with this your whole life. I believe you” 

Jessie hugs Beth then smiles at her, “It’s ok.” Jessie says, “I just need you to be strong right now.” 

Jessie then looks at Abigail and asks,“How’s it going with the scroll?” Abigail looks at the screen with frustration, “For some reason, the app won’t open.” she says frustrated, “It’s like it’s frozen.”

Kira walks into the room. “Morning everyone.” Kira says. She looks at Jessie and Abigail with a serious look on her face. “It’s time I tell the both of you everything I know.”

“Ok, what is it.” Abigail says. “What do you know?”

Kira gets a conflicting look on her face, takes a breath and knows she must tell the truth, “When Zara and I were teens, we stumbled upon Janace’s old backpack in the cabin.” Kira says, “We never went there before, but for some reason Zara wanted to explore it. The door was unlocked and we just walked in. When we found the old backpack, we started to read the journals. that’s when our dad walked in.” 

“What happened next?” Jessie says with a puzzled look on her face, “Was he mad?” 

“No, he wasn’t.” Kira said, “He was actually relieved. He couldn’t keep what Mel and Janice told him to himself anymore. So, he sat us down and told us all about Mel and Janice. How they met, their discoveries of the Xena Scrolls, how our families are descended from Xena and Gabrielle and about the Chakram and some of its legend. I really wasn’t all that interested at the time, but Zara was. Our dad showed her all of Janine and Mel’s journals, and soon, she became interested in the Chakram and its legend.” 

“Did grandpa or mom ever see this Chakram?” Sydney asks

Kira looks down to the floor, then back to the group and says, “Not at the time. You see, after your parents got married I started to become interested in everything that our father told us, not like your mom. But some things interest me about it. It wasn’t until our father died that we discovered the true meaning of the Chakram.” 

“What are you talking about Aunt Kira?” Beth asks.

Kira looks over at Abigail. “Abigail, can I please see that scroll.” Kira says.

“Sure.” Abigail says as she hands Kira the scroll. 

“Zara flew down from New York while your dad stayed with Beth and Sydney to help me go through our dad’s stuff and make funeral arrangements. Your father was going to fly down with the two of you later that week. We were in the cabin going through some stuff when we came across this box. We opened it and there was the Chakram.” 

Everyone gets a shocked look on their faces. “Mom and you seen the Chakram!” Jessie says, “Where is it!”

“Also in the box was this scroll.” Kira says, “You have to remember, we are from Greek decent. Mel taught our father how to read ancient Greek when Janice and her were here back in 1955. My dad taught your mom and I how to read Ancient Greek also when we both became interested in all of this.” A tear rolls down Kira’s face as she opens up the scroll.

“The Yin/Yang Chakram, a weapon only a select few could handle. It is said that when Gabrielle died, Xena and Gabrielle’s spirits were intertwined within the Chakram, waiting to be released again. Throughout time, trusted Gods and humans alike, hid this Chakram, waiting for the time for Xena and Gabrielle to be reborn again. For when the time comes, a descendant of Xena’s will hold the Chakram, and Xena and Gabrielle will be reborn again. Both Xena and Gabrielle will be reincarnated as their descendants and will be reunited. And once finding the Chakram, they shall emerge as their true selves again to fight for good in a new world.” Kira says seriously.

Abigail and Jessie looks at each other shocked. “So, Mel and Janace were actually Xena and Gabrielle?!?” Abigail says confused. “That has to be it!” 

Kira shakes her head no and all of the sudden Di appears. Everyone looks at her in amazement, “Di?” Jessie says, “What! What’s going on! How did you...” 

Di walks up to Jessie and Abigail and morphs into Aphrodite, “Hello my favorite warrior babes.” Aphrodite says as she looks at everyone, “My name is Aphrodite.” 

“As in the Goddess of Love Aphrodite?” Sydney says confused. 

“Yes.” Aphrodite says as she looks at everyone, then back at Kira. “It’s ok Kira.” she says, “It’s time to tell them the truth.” 

Kira takes a huge breath and says “We looked at the Chakram, knowing the legend, but we really were not sure if the it was true or not, so I picked it up first. I just studied it and put it back down. I told your mom that this legend stuff was crazy, but she looked at it with this mesmerizing look on her face and then picked it up.” 

“What happened next?” Beth says. 

“All of the sudden a bright ball of light flew out of the Chakram, into her. She dropped the Chakram, it broke in half, then she hit the floor grabbing her stomach.” Kira says. 

“What are you saying!?!” Jessie says confused.

“I became scared and asked her if she was ok and she said yes. It was then that she told me she was four months pregnant with you.” Kira says as she walks over to Jessie as a tear rolls down her face, “You are like a daughter to me and I made a promise to your mom to protect you, but now you need to know the truth.” 

Jessie gets an angry look on her face, “Tell me!” Jessie yells. 

“You are the reincarnation of Xena.” Kira says. She looks over to Abigail, “And Abigail, you are the reincarnation of Gabrielle.”

A blank look comes across Jessie and Abigails face as they try to process what was just told to them while everyone else looks on in complete shock.

Aphrodite looks at Abigail seriously and says, “Gabrielle, Little One. I was there the day you drew your last breath. You fought many battles for the greater good in the world at the time, but your heart, your soul, your spirit just couldn’t handle the one thing it longed for.You became depressed and your body started to shut down because of it. I even had Eve try and help you out of your depression, but you were to far gone. I asked you after all the years, what was the one thing you wanted. You said to be reunited with Xena again, to have a second chance. Her spirit always followed you, so, when you drew your last breath I had Archangel Michael intertwine your souls into the Chakram.” she says as she looks at Jessie and Abigail, “With my brother Hercules help, we kept the Chakram hidden, waiting for the right time for you two to be reborn again. I also was the one who brought Mel and Janice together. Everything needed to be put into place for all of this to happen, and who better than those two.” 

Aphrodite looks at Jessie, “After Zara picked up the Chakram, I approached both your mom and Kira and explained to them why this had to happen.” she says, “I explained to them who you two where and why your spirits needed to return. Somehow though, I think your mother knew this, because she had a calmness about everything.”

Aphrodite looks at Abigail, “So then I waited till the time was right and I set your parents up. I have been watching the both of you periodically since your teens. It was just a matter of the right time for the both of you to be reunited again. I'm sorry we never told you two, but, you needed to find out all of this on your own. It was the only way everything had to come into place. As far as Alti is concerned, I don’t know why she got involved. Or my other brother Ares, but everything that we are telling the both of you, is the truth.” Aphrodite puts her hand on Abigail’s shoulder, smiles and says “Xena, Gabrielle, it is so good to see both of you again.”

Jessie and Abigail look at the ground, then each other, knowing deep down what was told to them was the truth. Their friendship, their bond, their connection, everything. All of the sudden a few snippets of their past life flashes before them. Jessie, becoming scared and rushes out of the house, jumps on her bike and takes off. Kira looks on in regret, “What have I done.” she says. “She hates me now.”

Aphrodite walks up to Kira and puts a hand on her shoulder, “Never. She is just angry and confused. She will be back.” 

They both look over at Abigail, “Abigail.” Kira says. 

Abigail looks at the both of them and gets up, “I, I have to go find her.” Abigail says as she also leaves the house. She goes to the stables, grabs Blaze’s saddle and bridle and hooks it up to her. Abigail jumps on Blaze and they take off out of the stables. 

Meanwhile, in Ares throne room, Ares watches everything that has happened and has a shocked look on his face. “It’s really them!” he says. “Xena! Gabrielle!” He stands there shell shocked as it sinks in to him what was just revealed. He suddenly smirks a little, “Wow sis, I never seen this coming. You really have changed with the times. Sly little bitch” He starts to walk around the room thinking out loud. “First off, to tell that crazy shaman witch, what she thought about the Chakram was all wrong. And then to break up Xena and Gabrielle. Xena is confused right now.” Ares gets an evil smile on his face, “She will become the Destroyer of Nations again! And my queen!”

—————————-

Back at the Decker home, Andrea sits in her office glancing at the computer screen. Ares appears in front of her. “Hi.” Ares says, “I have a question for you.” 

Andrea looks over at him, “First off, you shouldn’t show your true self, Beth or Sydney could walk in and see you.” 

Ares gets a smirk on his face, “When was the last time you seen those two?” he says coldly. 

“Yesterday sometime.” Andrea says annoyed, “They pop up when ever, you know that.” 

Ares looks around, “They’re not here Alti.” he says. 

Andrea gets a weird look on her face, “What do you mean?” she says, “And you know not to call me by that name!” 

Ares gets up and walks around. “They’re not here. They are down in Arizona right now with Jessie and their aunt.” 

“What! They never told me!”, she says angrily. Ares starts to laugh. “Why are you laughing!” 

Ares starts to walk around, “What you thought about the Chakram, was all wrong.” Ares says, “Oh it had certain powers, but not what you thought. You see when Gabrielle passed away, my sister Aphrodite had Gabrielle and Xena’s spirits intertwined into the Chakram. Both Xena and Gabrielle have been reborn again.” 

A shocked look comes across Andreas face. “Who are they!”, she says confused, “It’s Beth and Sydney isn’t it!” 

Ares laughs real hard. “You should have known by the way she never took any of your spells or mind tricks. And the way she fights! You should have noticed the anger and rage inside her.” Ares looks at Andrea angrily and says, “For years you have been looking into Jessie eyes and not knowing she was Xena all this time.” Ares says coldly as a stunned yet scared look comes across Andrea’s face. “Appearance wise, not a hundred percent, but you can tell it’s her. Oh and Jessie’s new friend Abigail, she’s Gabrielle.” Ares says as he walks over to Andrea. he looks at her with a cold hearted look in his eyes, “They know who they are and who you really are! They know what you did to their families for centuries, what you did to Janice and Mel, what you did to the girls grandfather and they know that you killed their mother, all for a false legend brought on by your arrogance to have power again. Whatever happens now, I’m out. But I will say this, that emblem you have around your neck. You know what will happen if it slips off of you.” Ares suddenly disappears.

Andrea gets an angry look on her face and then she flips the desk over in a rage, “NOOO!!!!!” she screams.

——————————-

Up in the mountains, Jessie sits at the edge of the cliff looking at the waterfall. She stares at it with a tear running down her face, Ares suddenly appears behind her. “Hello Xena.” Ares says.

Jessie looks at him, “My name is Jessie.” she says.

Ares sits next to her and says, “In this life yes, you are Jessie Decker. But you know in your soul who you really are.”

Jessie gets up and Ares follows her to the entrance of the cave, she gets angry and pushes him to the ground “Did you help Alti kill my mother!” Jessie screams in anger, “Tell me the truth! While it’s all getting out there! Did you help Alti kill my mother!” 

Ares gets back up looks at her seriously and says, “No! I didn’t know she killed your mother until after she located me.” 

Jessie punches Ares in the face and screams, “And you never told me!”

“I didn’t know who you truly were until it was just relieved to you!” Ares says, “You know me Xena. Deep down in your soul, you know I would never harm a member of your family like that. Xena, ok, Jessie, do you remember your past.” 

Jessie walks around, “Yes, no I don’t know!” Jessie says confused, “Right now, I’m just angry. I have too much going on in my head right now and nobody to give me some clarity on everything!” 

“I can.”Ares says, “I can show you your true self. The fighter, the warrior, I can show you at your glory. You see, there was a time when you were feared by nations. Armies would follow you, you were indestructible. I can help you remember.” 

“I changed!” Jessie says, “Deep in my soul I know I redeemed myself and I atoned for all the wrong that I did.” 

“Yes, you did.” Ares says, “But now you have a second chance to reclaim yourself as the Destroyer of Nations. Join me Jessie, we can turn this new world upside down. We can concur this new world and make it our own!” 

“I am not that person anymore!” Jessie screams in confusion. Ares suddenly takes his hand and touches Jessie’s temple with his finger. All of the sudden flashbacks of Xena as she was before she redeemed herself, flashes through her mind. The wars, the bloodshed, the killings. She sees herself in battles killing and destroying villages with army’s at her side. Jessie breaths heavily as Ares shows her the past she didn’t want to relive, but knew was true.

Suddenly Abigail runs around the ledge and sees them, “Jessie no!” Abigail screams, “Snap out of it! Ares is trying to control you!” 

“Go away Gabrielle!” Ares screams as he looks at Abigail, “She doesn’t need you anymore!” 

“Stop it right now Ares!” Abigail says seriously. She looks over at Jessie, “Jessie! Please listen to me! Snap out of it! Don’t let him win!” 

“Just go away! I am showing her what she was before you came and ruined it all.” Ares screams, “You are nothing to her now!”

Abigail gets this scared look on her face when all of the sudden Jessie breaks free from Ares mind control and screams in anger. An evil looks comes across her face as Ares and Abigail looks on. “Jessie!” Abigail says frightened.

Jessie turns around and looks at them with a cold, evil look. The look of The Destroyer of Nations. A evil smile comes across Ares face.

“Jessie, say something.” Abigail says. 

“Go away!” Jessie says with an angry look on her face. 

“Jess, snap out of it!” Abigail says seriously. All of the sudden Jessie pushes Abigail,   
“Go Away!” Jessie screams as a fist curls up.

“Jess..” Abigail says, but Jessie pushes her to the ground. Abigail looks at Jessie stunned and shocked. 

“GO NOW!” Jessie screams. With a angry and confused look, Abigail gets up and leaves. Jessie watches Abigail leave then looks out at the waterfall. Ares walks up to Jessie, and puts his hand gently on her face. 

“Welcome back Xena.” he says. He looks her in the eyes and he pulls her into a passionate kiss, but suddenly a bright light appears between them and Jessie suddenly vanishes. Ares looks around confused, “What happened. Where’s Xena!” Ares says confused. He looks around and then he himself vanishes into thin air.

————-

Jessie looks around confused and sees a wooded area with trees and a stream. She walks around and stands in front of an old log that is on the ground. “What happened!” Jessie says confused, “Where am I!” 

All of the sudden Hercules appears in front of her. “Hello Xena.” he says, “Or if you are comfortable with Jessie, I can call you that.” 

Jessie stairs at him closely, “Dr. Henry?” she says a little confused. 

“Come on, you know who I am.” Hercules says smiling at her. 

She looks into his eyes and then a smile comes across Jessie’s face as she remembers who he is. “I remember!” Jessie says smiling. They hug each other, “Hercules! It has been so long! Jessie says. 

Hercules then gives her a serious look, “Xena, listen to me.” Hercules says, “Aphrodite and I didn’t bring Gabrielle and you back together again just so Ares could destroy the both of you. You two have a second chance to be together again, and I’m not going to stand by and watch Ares destroy that. What Gabrielle and you have, it has transcended time. I know right now you are angry and confused, but don’t blow away a second chance to be with the one person who has loved you more than anything.”

“Ares showed me what I was before I met you. I was the Destroyer of Nations.” Jessie says, “I killed so many people, destroyed so many lives.”

Hercules puts a hand on Jessie’s shoulder and says, “And now I am going to show you what Gabrielle and you did after I set you on the path that you were truly meant to be on.” Hercules waves his hand and a screen appears showing Jessie, as Xena, all the good things she did with Gabrielle. The people they saved, the life they lived, their battles against good and evil. Jessie looks on in amazement as all of these memories come flooding back to her. The screen disappears and Hercules looks at her and smiles. “It’s your choice.” he says, “There is someone else who wants to talk to you. I will leave you two alone. Just go with your heart Xena.” Hercules says as he disappears.

Jessie looks around in silence. “Hello.” Jessie says. “Is anyone there?”

“Jessie!” a voice says. Jessie turns around and Zara appears in front of her. She is dressed in a white gown, and a white glow surrounds her. A tear starts to flow down Jessie’s face, “Mom!” Jessie says in amazement, “Is it really you!”

“Yeah sweetheart, it’s me.” Zara says. She looks at Jessie with such love, “You have grown to be such a beautiful amazing woman.” Zara says smiling, “All of my girls have. All three of you have amazing gifts inside you just waiting to be unlocked. But right now, I’m here to talk about you Jessie.” Zara grabs Jessie’s hands, “Look at me and listen.”, she says, “I know you are mad and confused right now. But when I found out I was pregnant with you, and the time was right, I made the choice to pick up the Chakram because I forseen who you would become. Your aunt was only looking out for you, like she promised me she would, so don’t be mad at her. If anything, be mad at me.” 

“I could never be mad at you mom.” Jessie says. Zara gently touches Jessie's face, “I am so proud of you. But you must make a choice.” Zara says as Jessie looks at the ground, then back at her mother, “Be proud of who you really are and use it for the greater good. I was robbed of seeing you and your sisters grow up. Look into your heart and make things right.” Jessie smiles tenderly at Zara and they hug each other. “I will always be there for your sisters and you.” Zara says, “Remember that.” 

Suddenly Jessie is at the base of the mountain next to her bike. She looks up and smiles. “Thank you mom.” Jessie says, “Thank you for bringing me back.” She gets on her bike and speeds of into the direction of the main house.

————

At the main house Kira looks out the window with a worried look on her face. Beth walks up to her and puts a hand on her shoulder, “They will be back.” Beth says.

Kira turns and looks at Beth and Sydney. “I’m sure this is all confusing to all of you.” Kira says seriously. 

“Well, it’s not everyday we find out our kid sister is a, how did you say it, a warrior princess.” Beth says, “It does explains her personality a bit growing up.” 

The roar of Jessie’s bike is heard as Jessie runs into the house, “Did Abigail come back here?” Jessie says in a panic. 

“No! She didn’t.” Kira says worried. 

Lester gets up and looks out to the stables. “Blaze just walked up the barn.” Lester says worried, “No Abbie!”  
Lester, Kira and Jessie then gets a worried look on their faces. “I’ll get the ATV and go look for her.” Lester says as he leaves. 

Kira looks at Jessie. “Jess..” Kira says,

“No, it’s ok. You were only looking out for me. Thank you.” Jessie says. “I was up in the mountains, trying to sort things out when Ares popped up and started to mess with my head. He showed me a part of my past that I never wanted to relive.” Jessie looks at all three women seriously and says, “There was a part of Xena’s, my past that I wish I could take back. I was young, troubled, I went down a path that hardened my soul. Before I met Gabrielle I killed so many people and destroyed many villages. I was known as the Destroyer of Nations. It wasn’t until I met Hercules, that he set me on the right path. And then I met Gabrielle, and she became the light in my soul.” Jessie smiles then says, “She helped me change, be a better person. We fought many battles for the goodness of mankind. We had our bad times, but somehow, we always got past it. Anyway, Abigail found us and she tried to snap me out of Ares control, but they both started arguing and I just couldn’t take it anymore. My rage took over, I lost control and I did the one thing I told myself never to do, I snapped at her. The next thing I knew I pushed her to the ground and told her to go away. She got angry and left.” Jessie walks to a chair and sits down. “What the hell did I do!” Jessie says as a tear rolls down her face. 

Kira puts a hand on her shoulder. “What happened next.” Kira says. 

Jessie looks at them and smiles, “Hercules was able to get me out of there before Ares could really do damage to me. He reminded me why Abigail and I have a second chance and that I had to make a choice. And then mom appeared.” 

A shocked look comes across everyone’s faces as Beth and Sydney walk over to her. “Really!” Sydney says. “You talked to mom!” 

Jessie looks at Beth and Sydney smiles and says, “She’s proud of us. She just needed to remind me why I’m here.” Jessie looks at them seriously, “Even though I was born Jessie Decker, in my soul I am Xena.”

————————————-

Abigail sits on a log in the middle of the desert looking angry with tears flowing down her face. Suddenly Aphrodite appears next to her. She sets down next to Abigail and puts an arm around her shoulders. “It will be alright Little One.” Aphrodite say. 

Abigail looks at her, “No it won’t.” Abigail says coldly, “I tried to stop Ares from getting inside Jessie’s head, but he won. He turned her into what she was before we met in our past life.” 

Aphrodite smiles at Abigail, “No he didn’t.” Aphrodite says.

Abigail gets up, “Yes he did!” she says, “She looked at me so coldly. She looked so evil.” Abigail looks down at the ground, “I seen that look a long time ago. It was the old Xena, before we met. She yelled at me to go, then pushed me to the ground.” Abigail says, “Her fists where clinched, it wasn’t the Xena I knew and loved.”   
Abigail looks at Aphrodite, “And now here I am, confused about this whole damn thing. I’m even confused about myself. Who am I?!?” 

Aphrodite gets up and faces her, “In this life, you were born Abigail Covington, but in your soul, your spirit, you are Gabrielle, Battling Bard of Potidaea, Amazon Queen, Protege and soulmate of Xena. Deep in your soul, you knew you were Gabrielle before it was even revealed. And now, my warrior babes have a second chance!” 

Abigail gets a conflicting look in her eyes, “But the look in her eyes!” Abigail says, “It was pure hate.” Aphrodite puts her hand on Abigails cheek. “Hercules came and talked to her.” she says, as Abigail gets a confused look on her face, “You know him as your professor Dr. Henry.” 

Abigail gets a wide smile on her face. “Oh my god!” she says, “Of course!” 

“She also was visited by the one person who could truly bring her back, her mother.” Aphrodite says as Abigail gets a shocked look on her face. “Jessie loves you with all her heart and soul. I am going to show you something that happened when Jessie brought you back to life, to prove to you that you are her true soulmates.” Aphrodite waves her hand and a screen pops up. The scene is of Jessie performing CPR on her “Breath Abigail! Breath!” Jessie yells. Jessie leans down and whispers to Abigail, “I need you please breath!”. The scene is now in Abigails ICU room right before Kira walks in. Jessie is holding her hand with tears in her eyes, “Come by back to me Abigail! I love you." Jessie says. 

Tears flow down Abigail’s face as Aphrodite closes the screen. “Even though Ares is still on this thing with Xena, her heart and soul belongs to you Gabrielle.” Aphrodite says smiling at her. 

The sound of an ATV is heard in the distance, Abigail looks around as Aphrodite disappears.

Lester pulls up to Abigail and gets off the ATV, “Oh my God Abbie!’ he says, “Thank god your safe. Jessie is back at the main house. Let’s go!” 

Abigail looks at him and smiles, “How far is the cabin from here Les?” she says. “About three miles Abbie, Gabbie..” Lester says confused.

Abigail smiles at him, “Call me whatever you feel most comfortable.” Abigail says. “Can you drop me off at the cabin!?!”

Lester looks at her and smile, “Ok. no problem Abbie.” he says smiling at her. She smiles at him. “What’s wrong?” Lester asks.

“Back in the day, Xena and I had a really good friend.” Abigail says, “In a way, you remind me of him.” 

Lester smiles, “Come on, I’ll drop you off at the cabin then go tell everyone you’re ok.”


	12. Lovers And Legends Reborn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this explosive final chapter, Jessie and Abigail reunite and express their love for each other, and through that they become Xena and Gabrielle for a night of passion two thousand years in the making. The next day, Alti injures Kira and kidnaps Beth, Sydney and Lester. Jessie and Abigail find the Chakram and fully become Xena and Gabrielle to save the ones they love. Forces of Good vs Evil collide as Xena, Gabrielle and Aphrodite take on Alti and Ares!

Later that afternoon in the main house, Jessie is sitting in the living room with Kira, Beth and Sydney looking pretty shaken up. She looks at them, “I should’ve never went off on her like that!.” Jessie says with regret, “I let Ares play with our heads and now I may lose her!” 

Kira hugs her, “Abigail is a strong gal.” Kira says reassuring Jessie, “She will find a way back here.” 

“This is my fault!” Jessie says as she gets up and walks to the fire place with a tear in her eye. “ I let my rage come out and snapped on her when it shouldn’t have even happened. And now my heart may be ripped out of me!” 

Beth and Sydney look at each other kind shocked. Kira gets up and smiles a little. “You love her? Don’t you?” Kira asks. 

Jessie looks at them. “Yeah, I do love her! She is the best thing to ever happen to me in this lifetime and before.” Jessie says with a tear in her eye.

Lester runs into the living room out of breath. “I found Abbie!” Lester says excited as the ladies look at him, “She’s at the cabin!! She’s alright!” 

Jessie runs out of the house, jumps on her bike and takes off! Lester and the rest of the ladies run out of the house, “Should we follow her?” Lester says.

“No Les!” Kira says with a smile, “I think she has this handled!!” 

Sydney smiles at Beth who hands her a hundred dollar bill. Lester looks at them weirdly, “You two took a bet on whether or not Abbie would be ok!” he says a little angry. 

“No, you idiot!” Beth says to him sarcastically. 

Sydney walks over to Lester, puts her arm around his back and says to him sort of laughing, “Les, why don’t we go out for a drink and I’ll explain something to you.” Sydney says as she walks away from him

“Finally!” he says happily, “One of them likes me!” 

“NOW!! Before I change my mind!" Sydney yells as he starts running toward her.

At the cabin, Abigail sits on the couch. She looks at the ground with a tear running down her cheek. The sound of the motorcycle roars up to the door and Jessie rushes in. Abigail stands up and faces her. Tears of joy comes to their eyes as they embrace each other. 

Jessie holds Abigail in her arms, “I, I’m so sorry!” Jessie says, “I was confused and scared. Ares showed me my past, before we met. I relived all the killings, the bloodshed, the horror! Everything! I seen the part of myself, that I didn’t want to relive again.” Jessie looks at Abigail with regret, “ I will never snap at you like that again Abigail! My god, if anything would’ve happened to you, I couldn’t forgive myself.” Jessie says. 

“No! It’s not your fault!” Abigail says smiling at her, “If I hadn’t of listen to what Ares was feeding in my head, I wouldn’t have took off like that. I should’ve stayed and talked you through everything. I should know better when it comes to him.” Abigail says.

“ It doesn’t matter now!” Jessie says wiping away a tear. They stare deeply at each other. “I love you!” they both say. Jessie smiles tenderly at Abigail as she strokes her face. Abigail closes her eyes enjoying the touch. She then looks deep into Jessie’s eyes.

“I’ve loved you since I first saw you!”. Abigail says smiling. “It’s like, we’ve always had a connection!” 

“I feel the same way!!!” Jessie says, “This whole reincarnation thing is weird. If we are them, so be it. But one thing I do know, we’ve loved each other in this lifetime and before, I can feel it! And now, that I have you again, I am not letting you go!” 

Abigail wraps her arms around the back of Jessie’s neck as they stare deep into each other’s eyes, while Jessie wraps her arms around Abigails waist. They move closer and tenderly kiss each other. The kiss becomes more deeper and passionate as Jessie cradles Abigails face, she then runs her fingers through Abigail's hair. Abigail soaking in the passionate kiss, suddenly feels a rush through her body as emotions take over her. After awhile they come up for air. Jessie looks at Abigail tenderly, “Are you ok?” she says smiling as Abigail breaths heavy. 

“Yeah!” Abigail says smiling as she looks at Jessie with desire, “You, you just took my breath away! My heart and soul demands more!” 

Jessie looks down at her smiling, “Are you sure!?!” Jessie says. 

“I’ve waited this whole lifetime for you! Yes! I’m sure!” Abigail says as she passionately kisses Jessie.

Suddenly, the ball of light that surrounded them months back returns and radiates into their bodies as they stare deeply at each other. Memories of when they were Xena and Gabrielle, flash between them. The first time they met, how their friendship grew, how Xena trained Gabrielle to fight. When Xena brought Gabrielle back to life at the healing temple. The bad times and the good times. How they fought together in battle and fought each other. Their first declaration of love, their first kiss and their final kiss. They look at each other with such love in their eyes realizing who they now are. 

Jessie, now as Xena, smiles as she happily gasp for air “It’s really you my Gabrielle” Xena says. 

Abigail, now as Gabrielle, shakes her head yes and says happily, "Yeah Xena! It’s me!”

“You, You look so beautiful!” Xena says happily as she caresses Gabrielle’s face.

“You to Xena!” Gabrielle says smiling tendearly at her.

Xena leans over and kisses Gabrielle and picks her up off the ground. Gabrielle wraps her legs around Xena’s waist and they seductively stair at each other, then passionately kiss.  
———————-

The door to the bedroom opens as Gabrielle , who is wrapped around Xena’s waist, is passionately kissing her. Xena sets her down and they take off each others shirts. Xena leans Gabrielle against the bedroom wall and tenderly kisses her. The smell of Gabrielle’s perfume and the softness of her skin intoxicates Xena as she slowly kisses her neck and back to her lips. Gabrielle, lost in deep emotions, moans with pleasure with every kiss. Xena kisses Gabrielle’s shoulder as she closes her eyes in pure joy. Gabrielle reaches down and unbuttons Xena’s jeans and they stare at each other with pure desire.

A couple minutes later they are unclothed and in bed. Xena passionately kisses Gabrielle, moving down to her neck and back up to her lips. Gabrielle’s body shivers with passion as Xena moves down to her breasts, kissing both of them passionately, causing Gabrielle to moan with delight. 

“By the Gods!” Gabrielle moans.

Xena moves back up to her lips as their bodies engulf each other. Xena stares deeply into Gabrielle’s eyes, as both sets of souls connect. Xena kisses Gabrielle, then moves down her neck, then her breasts. She kisses Gabrielle’s tight six pack abs causing her to moan and arch her back. Xena then moves down to Gabrielle’s g-spot, diving into her zone. Gabrielle moans in ecstasy as Xena gives into her desires and makes deep, passionate love to Gabrielle. As the sun sets over the desert sky and night appears, they give into their desires and their passions as old lovers reunite and new lovers are born.

Later on that night, Xena and Gabrielle are laying under the covers in each others arms with smiles on their faces. Xena has her arms around Gabrielle , while Gabrielle’s head is laying on Xena’s chest. Xena kisses the top of her head, “Are you ok?” Xena ask. 

Gabrielle smiles and says , “Yeah, I am just fine!” Their free hands interlock with each other. “It feels so good being in your arms again Xena .” Xena looks at Gabrielle and smiles. “We have a second chance!” she says. .

Xena looks down at her, smiles and says, “We sure do. 

Gabrielle gets a weird look on her face. “Our lives are never going to be the same.” she says. “I know I’m Abigail, but in my soul, I’m me, Gabrielle.” 

Xena gets a serious look on her face. “Same here.” Xena says. “We are just going to have to even this all out with both our spirits.” 

“For some strange feeling, it’s like they’re a lot like us in a lot of ways.” Gabrielle says. 

“The are us Gabrielle.” Xena says. “Just like we are them. I’m just glad to be here, with you right now.”

“What happens next?” Gabrielle says, “My family in today’s world, they won’t understand all of this.” 

Xena gets a smirk on her face, “We will get through it when the time comes." Xena says as she cradles Gabrielle’s ace, "Right now we have what, two thousand years to make up for, lets just enjoy this moment.” Gabrielle interlockes both of Xena’s hands as she straddles her in bed, passionately kissing her. As Gabrielle makes love to Xena, the stars start to shine over the desert sky and for this one night they become one.

\---------------

The next morning, Kira walks into the living room and looks out the window, suddenly out of nowhere, she is pistol whipped in the back of the head. She passes out and hits the ground. Andrea stands above her with an evil look on her face then quickly vanishes. 

Fifteen minutes later, Beth and Sydney walk in, “Hey Aunt Kira, has Jess..” Beth says as they discover Kira laying on the ground both rushing her aid 

“Aunt Kira!” Sydney says worried. 

Beth check a pulse, “She’s alive.” Beth says, “It looks like she was hit on the head with something.” 

Sydney goes to pull out her phone to call 911 but all of the sudden Andrea materializes in front of them, pointing the gun at them. “You two are going to lead me to your sister NOW!” Andrea yells at them. 

Sydney gets an angry look on her face. “You fucking bitch!” Sydney screams at Andrea as she starts to charge at her, but Andrea cocks the gun

“Don’t think I won’t shoot you!” Andrea says coldly, “I will take you out like I did your mother.” 

Beth looks at her with rage in her eyes, “You think killing us will get you what you want!” Beth yells, “ You won’t succeed. Our sister will track you down and destroy you.” 

Andrea looks at them with an evil look, “And that is why you two are going to help me lure her out!” Andrea says to them. 

Lester walks in, "What's going on!" he says. 

Andrea turns around and points the gun at him, "You do as I say, or I kill them!" Andrea screams. Lester looks at her seriously. "You are going to join them in helping me lure Jessie out. If you don't." Andrea points the gun at Kira, "First I will put a bullet in her head, then you can watch me take them out before you.”

“Ok, whatever you say.” Lester says seriously. 

Andrea looks at them coldly. “We are going to the caves!!” Andrea says angrily. “Come on!”

_________________

Later that morning, After a passionate night as Xena and Gabrielle, Jessie and Abigail have morphed back into themselves. Abigail looks out the window of the cabin as the sun shines over the desert. A glowing smile radiates over her face after the passionate night they had. Jessie walks out of the bedroom, walks over to Abigail, wraps her arms around her and kisses her neck. “Morning!” Jessie says smiling. 

Abigail looks at her and they passionately kiss. “Morning!” Abigail says smiling. “Last night, even though we were Xena and Gabrielle, it was amazing!” 

Jessie smiles tenderly at her, “So was the shower this morning!” Jessie says with a flirty look in her eyes. She takes Abigail in her arms as she gets a look of calmness in her eyes, “All the anger and rage inside of me, it’s gone. I don’t feel it anymore.” Abigail hugs Jessie and then looks at her. “We do have to go to the ranch and wait for Alti though.” Jessie says. She picks up her phone off the coffee table and checks her texts. She gets a weird look on her face. 

“What is it Jessie?” Abigail says intrigued, as Jessie puts her phone down.

“Follow me.” Jessie says as they walk over to the fireplace mantle. Jessie takes all of the pictures off the mantle and looks at the painting above it. “Help me take this off the wall.” Jessie says. 

Jessie and Abigail gently take the painting off the wall to see brown paper covering a hole. Jessie rips it off to find Xena’s sword, Gabrielle’s Sais and Gabrielle’s sword from Jappn hanging from the wall. They smile as they see the familiar weapons remembering them from their lives as Xena and Gabrielle. . 

Xena’s sword is in a leather holster that is attached to leather straps that you can wrap yourself into. Gabrielle’s Sais and sword are also in leather holsters. The Sais is in a leather belt and is connected to two gold carabiners. Her sword is in a leather holster that is also in leather straps that you can wrap yourself into. They look at them smiling with a tear coming down their face. 

“It’s our weapons!” Abigail says.

Jessie smiles at her, “Aunt Kira left a message last night telling me where these were.” Jessie says as she looks back at them. They take the weapons off the wall and take them out of the holsters. Jessie looks at her sword and starts to twirl it around, flawlessly regaining the moves of Xena! 

Abigail takes the Sais out and twirls them with ease as if she had them forever. They look at each other and smile. “We should head back to the ranch.” Abigail says. 

All of the sudden, Jessie's phone rings, she picks it up and sees that it’s a video chat from Sydney. Jessie turns it on and Abigail and her watch the video. the scene is in the first cave with the pond. It is dark with only a bit of light. Suddenly the cave lights up with torches and Jessie and Abigail sees Beth, Sydney and Lester tied up to the cave wall. Beth and Sydney are trying to break loose while Lester looks like he has been knocked out! 

“Let us go!” Sydney screams! 

“Jessie! Help us!” Beth screams. Jessie and Abigail get angry looks on their faces. 

Suddenly Andrea appears on the video, “You want to see them alive!” Andrea says in the voice of Alti, “Come prove to me that you are truly Xena! And bring the Chakram with or else they die.” 

Jessie and Abigail get serious looks on their faces as the video stops. They stare at each other, “Where is the Chakram!” Abigail says, “Kira never told us!”

“It’s in the second cave!” Jessie says seriously, “Let's go!” they strap on their weapons and run out of the cabin.

About fifteen minutes later, Lester wakes up and sees that Beth, Sydney and him tied to the cave wall, “What happened.” Lester says coming to. 

Sydney looks at him frightened, “Alti knock you out.” she says, “Remember, you tried to subdue her.” 

Lester shakes his head. “Yeah, I remember.” he says. “This Alti, is she going to kill us.” 

“Alti has Sydney’s phone.” Beth says worried, “She threatened Jessie and Abigail. Said if they didn’t show up with the Chakram, she’d kill us.”

They all look at each other, “Come on Jess!” Sydney says, “Where are you!”

Suddenly Andrea appears in front of them. She starts to walk around. “You know, it’s a shame that I may have to kill you.” Andrea says, “I actually liked you two.” 

“I hate you!” Beth says coldly.

Andrea walks up to her, “You were the easiest to manipulate.” Andrea says, “While you were growing up, I could just say anything to you and you did what I said.” In anger, Beth tries to grab her throat, but she walks away laughing. She looks at Sydney, “You weren't as easy to manipulate as Beth, but you had your moments. That’s why I let Ares handle you!!” 

“Fuck you!” Beth says angrily. 

Andrea laughs and looks coldly at Beth and Sydney, “Jessie better show up soon, or your father will be burying the rest of his family.

______

Jessie and Abigail run through the main cave and rush towards the second cave. They walk in and Jessie shines a bright flashlight as they enter the cave. The lantern, pick and hat still sits there. 

“Where is it?” Abigail says. Jessie shines the light on the wall, circling the perimeter. She soon comes across the slab of stone with the two hand prints on it. 

“There!” Jessie says. They walk up to the stone and look at each other. They both take one of their hands and place it above the prints. The slab suddenly moves and a wall above it starts to move. Embedded in the cave wall is both halves of the Chakram. They stare at it remembering battles with it. They look at each other and they both grab a half. 

“You know what this means!” Jessie says staring at Abigail smiling. 

“We are them!” Abigail says, “Let’s make it final!” As they stand in front of each other, they smile at each other knowing this would be the last time they see each other as Jessie and Abigail. They connect both halves of the Chakram together and all off the sudden the Chakram rises above them as they look on. Two beams of light penitrates from the Chakram and hits Jessie and Abigail.

Back at the first cave, Beth and Sydney look up at the hole in the wall, noticing a bright light shining through it. Beth stairs at Sydney, who suddenly smiles. Andrea paces in front of Beth, Sydney and Lester. “I am losing my patience.” Andrea says, “Who wants to die first.”

Andrea takes the gun and points it at them as they all get scared looks on their faces. “Say goodbye.” Andrea cocks the gun, but suddenly the Chakram goes flying through the air, knocking it out of her hand. Andrea looks around with a stunned look on her face. “What!” she says. Beth and Sydney smile at each other. The Chakram flies across the air again, ricocheting through the walls then disappearing again.

Everyone looks around and all of the sudden a familiar war cry is heard " Ayiyiyiyi!" and the reborn Xena and Gabrielle jumps out of the hole connecting the two caves and stand twenty feet from Andrea. Xena is dressed in black boots, black leather pants and a black, sleeveless armor vest that wraps around her body. Red armor surround her chest area and she sports the ancient armband of Xena around her right arm. Her hair is styled long, yet with an edge like vibe with the sides of her hair pulled back in a small braid. 

Gabrielle’s hair is still styled in the short, edgy look, but it’s now platinum blonde, almost white. She wears black boots, black leather pants and a black leather halter top that curves into her six pack abs. She also sports a pair of long white gloves that is cut off at the fingertips. Beth looks at Sydney shocked, “That’s our kid sister!” Beth says in amazement.

Sydney smiles at her and says, “This is going to be one hell of a bitch fight!” Lester looks at them with a puzzled look, but gets a goofy grin on his face.

Xena and Gabrielle stair down Andrea with pure hate in their eyes. “Show yourself Alti!” Xena says angrily. 

Andrea stairs at them with an evil look. “Ares said that you’re really Xena.” she says coldly, “Prove it to me.” 

Xena takes out her sword from its holster and quickly points the tip to the edge of Andreas throat, while Gabrielle gets into defensive mode and takes out her Sais, ready to fight. “Show yourself Alti!” Xena yells, “We want to look at the face of the bitch who killed our families!”

Andrea looks into Xena’s eyes, even though she sees Jessie in front of her, the eyes tell a different story. Andrea rises into the air and suddenly transforms into Alti. Dressed in her Shaman clothing and hat, Alti looks at Xena and Gabrielle with anger. "Well now, we meet yet again!" Alti says. "Long time, no see!" 

"And this will be the last time for you Alti." Xena says. Suddenly two swords appears in Alti’s hands and both Xena and Gabrielle start to swing their weapons as Alti starts to fight them. With every swing Alti gives, Xena flawlessly swings back. Alti takes a sword and tries to stab Gabrielle, but she does a backflip, missing the sword by inches. Gabrielle swing kicks Alti’s left hand, knocking the sword out of it. The sword goes flying into the air slicing through Sydney’s restraints. Sydney takes off her leg restraints and proceeds to free Beth and Lester.

They start to run out of the cave, but Ares suddenly appears, “Hello.” Aries says with a smirk on his face. Sydney’s fist curls up and she punches him in the jaw causing a distraction for the trio to run around to the other side of the pond. Aries looks at Xena, rubbing his jaw but smirking a bit, “Your sister is crazy Xena!” he says.

Gabrielle sees Ares and looks at Xena, “I’ll be back!” she says, “I have a score to settle” Gabrielle runs in his direction and does a backflip, landing behind Ares, she points her sword to his throat. 

Ares looks at it and smirks, “Well hello Gabrielle.” Ares says as he faces her. 

“We have a score to settle Ares!” Gabrielle says.

“Ah, yeah. I almost killed you didn’t I!” Ares says as a sword appears in his hand, “Want to go for round two!” Ares swings his sword at Gabrielle, but she flawlessly blocks every swing, using new and old fighting skills, “You have added new moves Gabrielle!” Ares says smiling, “How about you join Xena and I, be my newest protégée!” 

“In your dreams Ares!” Gabrielle says, “You know that after two thousand years, my answer is still no!” Gabrielle knocks his sword out of his hand and she throws a punch to his face. She does a swing kick, knocking him to the ground, but he gets back up and another sword appears in his hand. 

“Too bad Gabrielle!” Ares says, “Now I’m going to have to finish you off.” Ares swings at Gabrielle, but she blocks his moves, “Xena will be mine.” he says seriously. 

“I don’t think so Ares. Did you feel the Earth shake a little last night.” Gabrielle says in a cocky tone of voice as if she’s taunting him.

“Why?” Ares says confused.

“I did the one thing you never seem to succeed in doing!" Gabrielle says with a smirk on her face, “I got her in bed and we rocked the world a bit last night!” 

Ares looks at Gabrielle in anger and screams as he aims his sword towards her. He runs at her, nicking her arm, but she moves out of the way before he can stab her. “Oh, come on Ares!” Gabrielle says taunting him, “Still jealous after all these years! You know Xena and I have been together forever!” Gabrielle takes out her staff and unfolds it. Ares takes his sword and lunges at Gabrielle but she blocks him with her staff. She kicks him in the stomach, causing him to back up. He takes his sword again at Gabrielle. She swings the staff at him, but he knocks it out of her hands, causing it to fly in the direction of Sydney, landing in front of her. Sydney picks it up and as she looks at it, she gets a sense of familiarity when holding it. She looks in Gabrielle’s direction. “Gabrielle!! Catch!” Sydney yells as she throws the staff through the air. Gabrielle jumps in the air, grabbing her staff. She lands behind Ares and gives Sydney a smile, as if to thank her. Ares turns around and Gabrielle bashes him in the stomach with her staff sending him flying to the ground.

Meanwhile Xena and Alti fight it out near the pond! Xena punches Alti and she lands on the ground. She gets back up and takes her sword and charges Xena, but Xena back flips and knicks Alti’s shoulder with her sword. “You know the greatest thrill of all this!” Alti says, “Sticking the knife in your mother's stomach and watching her gasp for air!” 

Sheer anger comes across Xena’s face as she screams at her, “You bitch!!” Xena and Alti’s swords come together as they stare each other down with pure anger in their eyes, “You are not coming out of this alive Alti!”, Xena says as she throws Alti to the ground. Alti gets back up and a red ball forms in Alti’s hand and she shoots it towards Xena, knocking her to the ground. Xena gets back up and swing kicks Alti in the stomach, sending her flying into the cave wall.

Alti then gets up and levitates in the air. A red ball forms in her hands, and she throws it in the direction of Beth, Sydney and Lester, who separates and dives to the ground. Alti shoots a ball at Xena, but Xena takes the Chakram out and flings it at the ball, knocking it to the ground. The Chakram ricochets off the cave wall, separates and knocks Alti to the ground. It reforms into one again and lands in Xena’s hand. Alti gets back up and with her sword charges at Xena, but Xena grabs her wrist and twirls her around landing her on her back. Xena goes to stab Alti with her sword, but Alti sends Xena flying through the air and she lands into a cave wall.

Ares sends Gabrielle flying into a wall and he takes his sword and charges at her, but suddenly a red ball of light forms and sends him flying to the ground. All of the sudden Aphrodite appears. She is wearing a red, one piece body suit that curves her body. She goes to Gabrielle and helps her up. “You go help Xena.” Aphrodite says, “I need to teach Ares a lesson.” 

Gabrielle looks at her with a stunned look on her face, “Aphrodite! Are you crazy!” Gabrielle says, “You’ve never taken him on! He could kill you!” 

Aphrodite looks at her and smiles, “Listen Little One, Xena and you saved my ass so many times, this is my way of saying thanks.” she says, “ Aphrodite then looks over at Alti, “There is a pendant on her neck that’s been keeping her alive for centuries.” Aphrodite says, “Get it off her so Xena can finish her off!” Aphrodite looks back at Gabrielle, “Go!” Aphrodite says. Gabrielle looks at Aphrodite with a sad look. Aphrodite, smiles at her, “Go!” Aphrodite says. 

Gabrielle runs towards Xena and Alti. Ares gets up and looks at his sister with anger, “So, now you’ve betrayed me!” Ares yells as a sword appears in his hand as does a sword in her hand. He looks at her in shock, but gets an angry look on his face, “Be prepared to die!” Ares says as he charges at Aphrodite. She takes her sword and blocks his moves. A shocked look comes across his face, She throws him back into a wall, but he gets back up. All of the sudden a white ball appears in her hand, she throws it at Ares sword and it flys out of his hand. He looks at her in shock. “So, this is how it’s going to be sis!” Ares yells.

A red ball forms in his hand, as does a white ball forms in Aphrodites hand. “I told you to leave them alone Ares!” Aphrodite says seriously, “I love you, but you need to give up this thing with Xena!”

“Not a chance!” Ares says. Ares and Aphrodite throw the balls of light at each other, but the balls hit each other illuminating both of them. Both Ares and Aphrodite have their hand out at each other trying to make their ball hit each other, suddenly their balls of light fuse together, bounce back at them and they disappear. Gabrielle turns around and sees both Aphrodite and Ares are gone. “Aphrodite!!” Gabrielle screams as a sad look comes across her face. She looks over at Xena and Alti and takes her sword out.

———-

Back at the ranch, James walks in looking concerned, “Hello!” he says. He walks into the living room to see Kira sitting up with an ice pack to the back of her head. “Oh my God Kira!” he says. “Are you ok! What happened!”

Kira looks at him puzzled. “Jim? What are you doing here.” Kira says confused. 

“Beth text me yesterday saying Jessie remembered Zara’s murder.” he says. “I just flew in from overseas. What happened here?”

Kira looks at him seriously, then around the living room. “The girls!” she says worried, “Are they here!?!”

“No, the place is empty.” James says worried, “What’s going on! Is everything ok?” 

“We have to go to the mountains” Kira says, “Hopefully Jessie and Abigail got to them in time.” Kira slowly gets up. “We’ll take the truck!”

At the cave, Xena gets up and swing kicks Alti sending her into a cave wall. Gabrielle runs to her, “We have to get that necklace off!” Gabrielle says. “Without it, she’s dead forever!” 

Xena thinks for a bit, “You and Les get my sisters out of here! I need to get her alone for my plan to work.” Gabrielle looks at her seriously. “I’ll be fine.” Xena says as she looks at Gabrielle with a smile.

Gabrielle smiles at her and runs towards the girls and Lester. “Come on! Follow me!” Gabrielle says to group. They sneak out the back way of the cave

. Alti stands up and it is just Xena and her. They circle one another. Xena takes out her sword, “Now it’s just us Alti!” Xena says with anger in her eyes, “This will be the last time though!”

“I always come back!” Alti says. Xena looks at her necklace, then at her.

“I don’t think so!” Xena says. “You killed my mother right in front of me! I seen the whole thing! All of the rage and anger built up inside me! It was because of you! You robbed my sisters and I of our mother. Out of all the times we faced each other, this time you went to far Alti!! And for what! The Chakram!” Xena takes the Chakram out and holds it out in front of them, “Is this what you wanted all these years!” Xena says seriously. “You want it so bad, here!”

James, who is driving the truck suddenly stops it in shock and looks at Kira, “My daughter is who!” he says confused. “And my wife is a what!”

Kira looks at him seriously, “Jessie is the reincarnation of Xena, a warrior princess from ancient times! It’s the honest truth Jim!” Kira says, “We need to get to the trail leading to the mountains before Andrea, I mean Alti kills them all!” James, looking so confused, drives in the direction of the trails.

Back at the cave, Xena and Alti stare down each other, “Here!” Xena says, “What are you waiting for!”

Alti’s eyes widen as she happily stairs at the Chakram. “I thought you were more smarter than this!” Alti says seriously. She reaches out for the Chakram, but Xena bounces it on the ground and it flies up into the air. Xena also jumps into the air, grabs the Chakram and flips over Alti taking her sword and slicing off the necklace. It falls to the ground without Alti noticing. Alti rises in the air forming another ball in her hands. Xena then runs and jumps in the air taking her sword and stabbing Alti through the stomach. They both go flying into a cave wall and slide down to the ground. Alti goes and reaches for her emblem and notices it gone. “Agh” Alti gasps, “NO!!

Xena takes her sword again and jabs it into Alti’s stomach again. Xena looks at Alti with pure hate in her eyes, “The first one was for my grandfather, Mel and Janice.” Xena says angerly. “This one is for my mom you bitch!” Alti looks at Xena gasping for air. Xena pulls out her sword, grabs Alti by the throat and stares at her seriously, “Give Lucifer my regards.” Xena says coldly. Alti takes her last breath and disappears. Xena looks at the ground, gets up, then walks out of the cave.

At the base of the mountain, Gabrielle and the group run out of the trail. “Where’s my sister!” Beth says worried. “Should we have left her alone with that monster?!?” 

Gabrielle looks at Beth, “Trust her.” Gabrielle says, “She will come out of this.”

All of the sudden the truck pulls up and James and Kira get out of the truck. The group looks at them, “Aunt Kira!” Beth says running to her, “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine, just a bump on the head.” Kira says as Beth looks at it. Beth takes her fingers,

“Follow my fingers.” Beth says as she moves them side to side. 

“I said I’m fine!” Kira says.

James looks around confused. “Kira just explained everything.” he says, “I don’t know if I believe it, but is everyone ok?”

“We’re fine dad.” Sydney says, “How are you?” 

“A little confused?” James says, “Where’s Jessie?”

Everyone looks at the trail in fear. “She will be here.” Gabrielle says.

Suddenly walking out of the trail is a battled Xena. She takes her sword and puts it back in her holster. She looks at everyone and smiles. “It’s over!” she says, “She’s gone forever!” Beth and Sydney run to her and they hug each other. Xena looks over to James and walks to him “Dad, are you ok?”

James stares at Xena examining the transformation in her, “Jess? Or Xena?” he says confused. Xena smiles at him and says, “We will work it out dad. I want you to meet someone.” Xena walks over to Gabrielle and they hug each other.

“I knew you’d make it!” Gabrielle says smiling.

Xena looks at her and smiles, “Listen, I know your parents and you are on the outs, but I want you to know that you are a part of my family.” Xena says, “I want you to meet my dad.” Xena grabs Gabrielle's hand and they walk over to James.

“Dad, I want you to meet my soulmate and partner Gabrielle.” Xena says.

James looks at them and smiles, “Wow!” James says, “Hello Gabrielle.”

“Hi sir.” Gabrielle says smiling, “Nice to meet you.”

“Well now, I guess I’m finally going to take that vacation just to soak this all in.” James says smiling as they all laugh. 

Lester walks up to Xena and Gabrielle, “Hey Gabbie!” he says smiling. They turn and look at him, “So now can you tell me who I remind you of?”

Xena looks down at Gabrielle confused, they walk about three feet from the crowd. “Ok, the song he always whistles, his jawbone and goofy looks, the urge to either slap him or hug him.” Gabrielle says smiling. Xena gets a smirk on her face, “Joxer!” they both say. 

“Let’s just keep this to ourselves for a while.” Xena says smiling. “I say we let him figure this out on his own. He could just be a descendant though.”

They turn around and walk over to him, “Les, you do remind us of someone.” Xena says. 

“Who!” Lester asks getting excited.

“Yourself” Gabrielle says. Lester gets a confused look on his face. “Just be you Les.” Gabrielle says as he smiles at them. 

“Come on.” Kira says, “Lets go back to the house!” 

“We will meet you there” Xena says.

Everyone gets into the truck and rental car and heads back to the main house only leaving the bike. Xena looks at a sad Gabrielle, “Aphrodite, she’s gone.” Gabrielle says, “She sacrificed herself for us,”

Xena gets a sad look on her face as they hug. Suddenly Hercules appears. “Hello ladies.” he says. They look at him with a sad look. “What’s the matter?” Hercules says worried, “Alti is gone, right!”

“Yeah, but so is Aphrodite.” Xena says, “She sacrificed herself for us.” 

Hercules smiles at them. “She’s ok!” he says. Xena and Gabrielle look at him confused, “When Ares and Aphrodite fought, they over extended their powers, sending them back to their castles. They are both exhausted, but not gone.” Xena and Gabrielle look at each other confused. “See for yourself!” Hercules says as he points to the ground behind them. They turn around and see a pink rose blooming in the desert. They both smile back at him. “When she’s ready, she will visit you.” he says smiling. “I think it’s time you two start that second chance again.” They smile at each other as the pink rose fully blooms.

Just then, off in the distance the spirits of Mel and Janice appear. They smile at Xena and Gabrielle, “Wow! it’s really them.” Janice says. 

Mel stairs proudly at them, “It sure is!” Mel says as she looks at Janice. She looks back over at Xena and Gabrielle, “We are now at peace.”

Janace smiles at Mel then looks at Xena and Gabrielle, “Thanks ladies!” Janice says smiling. Janice grabs Mel's hand as their spirits disappear.

————————-

Three months have past. Xena and Gabrielle walk into the cabin with luggage. They set it down and share a passionate kiss. “It’s so good to be home!” Gabrielle says smiling.

“I agree!” Xena says.

“Your dad is very accepting of us.” Gabrielle says, “And your sisters are amazing.” 

“They adore you.” Xena says. “I’m just glad we are back home, where we belong. Two weeks away from here drove me crazy.” 

“You know what drove me crazy.” Gabrielle says as she wraps her arms around Xena’s neck, “Not being able to do this!” Gabrielle kisses Xena, who looks at her seductively, “And this.” Gabrielle says as she starts to unbutton Xena’s shirt and kisses her neck. 

“I missed that!” Xena says as the kiss excites her more. They set the Chakram and Sais on the coffee table and Gabrielle pushes Xena on the couch.

“And this!” Gabrielle says with desire in her eyes. Xena smiles passionately at her as Gabrielle straddles Xena and passionately kisses her. 

Xena starts to unbutton Gabrielle’s shirt when all of the sudden a bright light appears, causing Xena and Gabrielle to jump up and grab the Chakram and Sais, ready for battle. All of the sudden, Aphrodite appears, smiling at them. “Hey my warrior babes!” she says smiling, “I’m back!”

Both Xena and Gabrielle smile as they set their weapons down! “Aphrodite!” Gabrielle says as she gives her a huge hug! 

“We are so glad to see you Aphrodite!” Xena says smiling, “We seriously thought you were gone forever.” Aphrodite smiles at them, “The Goddess of Love can never die!” she says as she snaps her fingers. “I just needed some R&R, ya know, get the love flowing back in me”

“Can I ask what happened to Ares?” Xena says. 

Aphrodite gives them a smirk and says, “Well, after I kicked his ass and sent him back to his castle, he’s sort of been laying low, licking his wounds a bit.” 

Both Xena and Gabrielle chuckle a bit. Aphrodite, noticing their half unbuttoned shirts, looks at them and smiles and says, “I see you two have been catching up with each other while I’ve been gone!” 

Xena and Gabrielle look down and straighten their shirts, “Hey, you know me! I’m all about love!” Aphrodite says smirking at them. “So, what’s been up with my warrior babes! Are you Xena and Gabrielle or Jessie and Abigail?” 

Xena and Gabrielle look at each other, then at Aphrodite, “To those close to us, we are Xena and Gabrielle.” Xena says, “To the outside world, we are still Jessie and Abigail, for now.” 

“We do have a mix of both in us, it will always be that way.” Gabrielle says. “Unless Ares stirs something up, we are just laying low.”

“Good!” Aphrodites says, “After everything you two have been through, in both lifetimes, you need time for each other.” 

Xena and Gabrielle smiles at Aphrodite, “We want to thank you for bringing us back.” Xena says, “We appreciate it.” 

“Well, it’s like I told Gabrielle, you both save me a lot back in the day, this is my way of saying thank you!” Aphrodite says. Gabrielle smirks at her, “What’s wrong Little One!” 

“Nothing.” Gabrielle says, “We just like this new you that’s all!” 

“Yeah! You have changed!” Xena says. 

Aphrodite smiles wide and says, “Well, you know it’s still all about me!” 

“Of course!” Gabrielle says, “We wouldn’t want it any other way!” 

“I just now defend those close to my heart!” Aphrodite says. “So, what else is up!” 

“My aunt gave us the cabin.” Xena says, “I’m going to help her on the ranch, connect more to this place.” 

“And I changed my major.” Gabrielle says, 

“To what?” says Aphrodite.

“Literature and film, with a minor in web design!” 

“The bard is expanding!” Aphrodite says happily, “Yes!” She looks at them seriously, “I will still be around, if you gals need me. I just want to warn you that when Ares does decide to resurface, it’s going to be big.”

“We have a feeling it will.” Xena says seriously.

“You two just lay low, enjoy yourselves.” Aphrodite says smile, “Yell if you need me!” Aphrodite disappears in a ball of pink glitter.  
Xena and Gabrielle look at each other seriously, “When do you think he will finally resurface?” Gabrielle says. 

“I don’t know.” Xena says, “But we have to be prepared for it.”

In Ares throne room, Ares stare into the distance with anger in his eyes, “I think this new world needs to get prepared for the God of War!” he says, “If Xena and Gabrielle can walk around in this new world, I need to shake it up for them. Resurrect some things.” He gets up and looks at an image of them, "Be prepared to relive something's you two. I will shake up your new life, for the worse!" Ares gets an evil look on his face as he contemplates his idea........


End file.
